Wednesday, April 16  

Am I good, or what?!!

Okay, okay. I confess. I'm good. Damn good!

You may remember (unless you brain has been beer soaked for a few years and you have a very poor short term memory) that on April 3, I mentioned the importance of standing out as an integral part of your marketing. If you're the same as your competition, then there is no real reason to buy from you.

Well, it appears that the good folk at Herron have been reading this page and have stolen my idea! Disgraceful, despicable and disgusting!

I know. But it's okay. I'll live with it.

Herron is an Australian owned company that manufactures a range of medications including paracetamol. Now paracetamol is Panadol. Everyone calls it Panadol. The brand Panadol has become an icon. And a little old (young actually, Herron was founded in 1984) Aussie company had no chance against the might of an instantly recognised brand name with almost total market saturation.

Mmmmmm, but then the clever people read my entry from April 3 and stole my idea.

Herron identified their point of difference (they are an Australian owned company and Panadol isn't) and that was that. That was the point of difference they hammered. And hammered. And advertised. And advertised. That was all they had. (Well, they also came up with the bright idea of targeting supermarkets and grocery stores with their products).

Was it enough? You betcha.

Despite a poison-based extortion attempt against the company (if my memory serves me correctly they had to ditch their entire stock) the guys and gals at Herron have managed to fight back. And they kept on plugging away with their one and only point of difference. Australian owned. Australian owned. Australian owned.

And then they did something else yesterday. From the brink of disaster from the extortion case, they have just sold the whole ball game for a cool $120 million and some change to Sigma - another Australian owned company.

Okay, maybe Herron didn't steal my idea from 13 days ago. They have been running the 'Australian owned' line for years after all. But, and I'm sure you'll agree, I deserve some sort of bonus from them. 10% sounds good to me, Elmo de Alwis, if you are reading. Don't be shy. I'll accept cash!

Find a point of difference in your business, so that your potential customers have a very good reason to buy from you. That makes your business the choice everytime.

Cheers.