If you think it’s tough pitting your product against a handful of big competitors, try 7,700 small ones. At one point in time, nearly 8,000 e-juice flavors flooded the market, each one more outrageous and eye-catching than the last. While the immediate reaction for some businesses in similarly cutthroat markets may be to try to outdo the competition, that tactic can be both exhausting and futile.
Our tobacco e-liquid company of Black Note found a better way to stand out from the crowd, and your business can, too. We couldn’t make more noise than our competitors, as we’re a small company that doesn’t have the marketing budget or resources to match the bigger guys.
We couldn’t outdo the competition by producing new and different products, as we already had a lineup of high-quality e-liquids we spent years perfecting.
It’s never wise to compete solely by offering the cheapest prices, as someone will always end up going cheaper. Cheap prices can also cheapen your overall product in the mind of the consumer, not to mention what it can do for your profits.
The way Black Note chose to compete instead involved a three-part strategy, one that has kept us going strong while any number of the 7,700 e-juice flavors may have come and gone. Rather than focusing so much on our competition, we put a keen eye on the customer base. Then we found three ways to stand out by truly providing what they want and need.
Fill a Void
Even before the e-juice flavor count hit the 7,700 mark, we saw the direction in which many of the flavors were heading. While there were dozens of flavors that tasted like candy, breakfast or beverages, the market was sorely lacking in a major category: real tobacco flavor.
Some companies that did offer tobacco flavor e-liquid created synthetic tobacco flavor consumers complained tasted nothing like tobacco. Black Note jumped on it, offering tobacco e-liquid made from real tobacco that actually tastes like tobacco.
Create a Niche
Instead of trying to market our real tobacco e-juice to the entire vaping community, we focused on a select part of the market. Our real tobacco vaping liquid uses only high-end tobacco, only the best part of the tobacco plant, and is created in small batches using a nine-step process. Our niche became consumers looking for the most authentic and enticing tobacco experience.
Select a Very Specific Audience
Black Note has always steered clear of what are known as “characterizing flavors” that tend to appeal to the younger audience. Our target audience consists of adult smokers and vapers, and no one else.
We didn’t want the craziest flavors. We didn’t want the widest audience. And we didn’t want to be known for the cheapest vaping liquid. We went with strategies that aligned precisely with our overall mission, which is to help create a smoke free world by providing the most authentic and enjoyable alternative to smoking.
Create a mission in which you believe, products that help you uphold it, and provide what consumers really need, and your company can stand out, too.
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This guest post is courtesy of Ethan Parsa. He is the Marketing Director of Black Note, a California-based company specializing in real tobacco vaping liquid. Parsa brings a strong eye for detail, dynamic ideas, and an infusion of creativity to the Black Note team.
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