This document is an example of a topic's structure.

1. Chapter5: Niche and market research
In the last chapter, we went through in-depth customer research, and hopefully, by now, you
have taken the time to identify your customers’ demographics, pain points, dreams, limitations,
and challenges.
I also have asked you to brainstorm a few solutions and come up with an offer proposition.
In this chapter you are going to learn how to bring your ideas together into a complete,
cohesive, and competitive offer.
In this chapter we will cover the following topics:
- How to find a niche and product ideas
- How to study and analyze your competition
- How to develop a unique selling proposition
- How to win in business
Niche research:
Let’s first identify what a niche is:
- A job or position that is very suitable for someone, especially one that they like. -
Cambridge Dictionary
- A niche is a combination of the product or service offered (the “what?“) and the targeted
market (the “For whom?”). - Google
This brings us to a simple formula:
Specific what + Specific whom = Niche
Since the last chapter we focused entirely on the “specific whom” variable of the formula, today
we will focus on the “specific what” and try to come up with a specific and profitable solution.
Why should you find a niche?
Well, in business if you try to serve everyone you would end up serving no one, you will have
more competition to deal with and you will stretch your resources way too thin.
On the other hand, finding a niche will help you to:
- Focus your effort and resources on executing specific tasks and driving specific
measured results.
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2. - Focus and narrow down your marketing message toward specific customers’ needs.
- Narrow down your competition.
- Build a leading brand rather than a commodity business.
How to find your niche
The first step to finding your niche is to first find what you are good at; if you are skilled in
meditation yoga, social media marketing, or creative writing for short films then “usually” you are
not going to be interested in getting into a hotel management consulting services.
On average, it does not make sense, things don’t add up, you don’t have the experience,
knowledge, resources, and execution skills to build such a business.
Therefore only looking at the market opportunities without taking into consideration your skills
would not make much sense especially if you lack the resources to hire a team.
1. Niching by skill and service
1.1 Find the root category of your skill
Photographers take “photography” and capture scarce memories; chefs serve “food” and deliver
delicious flavors of experiences, graphic designers design “advertising” and communicate bold
ideas visually.
What is the root category of your core skill?
In the second chapter of this book, we talked about your skills, now it’s time to look at them
closer.
If your primary skill is social media marketing then it falls into the digital marketing category.
If your primary skill is giving people a nice haircut then you fall into the hairdressing category.
A quick tip: If you need some help in identifying your skills and main category a quick Google
search for “your skill + categories” will get you there.
Here is why I asked you to search for your root category; It’s because most small businesses try
to compete on that level, which is a complete failure, imagine how many businesses will
compete in the digital marketing category, and imagine how difficult it is for you to squeeze a
customer out of that competition.
1.2 Find the subcategories of your niche
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3. Let’s forget about digital marketing and social media in general for a moment and narrow our
skills to the subcategories level.
Here is a list of social media specialization subcategories:
Here is also an example of some specialization of the hairdressing categories:
- Men’s cut
- Women’s cuts
- Kids cuts
- Special occasion
Have you found that the more we narrow down our specialties, our service becomes more
targeted toward a specific group of people?
Let’s take the hairdresser example, if he/she decides to only serve kids haircuts then they will
make their priority to design their store in a way that only attracts and entertains kids.
Make the experience more pleasurable and perhaps give kids a free haircut on their birthday.
This will make the experience more personalized and designed around a specific customer to
deliver an outstanding experience while charging a premium price.
A general hairdressing salon wouldn’t be able to provide such a service because the service is
too generic and it has to satisfy everyone, however, it can’t raise its prices by a lot, because
customers have so many options and different similar stores to choose from.
Therefore the store needs to attract as many customers as possible at a low-price to make
some profit.
By industry By Content-Type By Deliverable
Fashion Video - Youtube Content creation
Cosmetic Images - Instagram Content distribution
Food Blogging - Linkedin Audience relationship
management
Hair Salon Brand social reputation
management
E-commerce
B2b
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4. This brings us to the lesson that the more skilled and experienced you become, the more you
niche down your service and serve a smaller group of customers with a specific service yet a
much higher premium price.
Likewise, If you need to charge your customer a premium price then you have to narrow down
your niche and become specialized in solving a specific problem at an exceptional level.
Let’s look back at our social media marketing example.
Let’s assume that you want to sell your services to a small business, what is the best strategy to
pitch your service?
Scenario 1:
You: we are a social media marketing agency and we help businesses to grow their business.
The customer: hmm, okay!
Scenario 2:
You: we are a social media marketing agency that specializes in Instagram content marketing,
we help small fashion brands expand their reach and grow their revenue through partnering up
with influencers and creating engaging content.
The customer: that’s what we are looking for!
Let’s break down both scenarios in more detail, shall we?
Scenario 1:
It’s a vague and broad definition of social media marketing, there is no clear specialization. The
customer answer would be, so what?
Scenario 2:
The specialization of the agency is clear and defined, it sends a specific offer to a specific type
of small business with a specific strategy, deliverables, and outcome.
The first agency might get more generic opportunities, but it requires more resources to
accomplish and cover a wide range of services, it also has to be highly competitive since the
market provides a massive amount of generic marketing agencies that deliver no proven results.
The second agency will target specific opportunities and send a specific message to specific
businesses, it requires fewer resources to accomplish a specific job.
Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to niche down your service, you can start by
going abroad and trying different things to deliver different offers and services.
With more experience and market insights, you narrow down your service to the most profitable
niche.
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5. 2. Niching by product
If you decide to go with a product rather than a service here is how to find and validate your
niche
1. Head to Amazon.com and click to
shop by department
2. Choose the major category of your
solution.
3. Find a sub-category that fits your
customer avatar.
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6. A quick tip: note how the number of search results gets less the more you niche down your
category, this means less competition to deal with.
7. Take your niche an extra step by searching for the sub-niche of your niche.
Head to Google and type ”Your niche for” then wait for the search bar to come up with
search suggestions.
4. Break down your sub-category into a
more specific solution.
5. Keep navigating till your reach a sub-
sub-sub-category which includes a
collection of niches that you can
explore.
6. Each niche includes a collection of
products that you can develop into an
entire brand line for your niche.
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7.
Google sub-niche research
As you can see, the highlighted phrases are for people who are looking for a specific product
that solves specific pain or frustration.
For this demonstration, I’m going with a cleanser for acne skin as my niche.
8. Validate your niche demand: head back to Amazon and search for your sub-niche.
Find if there is a good amount of sales around this product category. The last thing you
want is to get into a niche or sub-niche that has no to low demand.
Amazon sub-niche research
Head to Google Trends and enter your sub-niche name in the search box.
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8. Google trends
What we want to look for is a stable, consistent, and growing niche over an extended period.
Getting into declining, trendy or seasonal niches is risky and shouldn’t be on your list if you are
looking for a long-term successful business.
Google trends
Keep in mind that although we explored your niche for a product that doesn’t mean you can’t
offer your solution as a service since there is a demand for your niche.
You can develop products along with services or information products such as consultation,
online courses, or books that focus on solving the same pain point but with a variety of
solutions.
This will not only help you to build an authority brand around your niche but also increase the
revenue streams of your business.
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9. The lesson is that the product itself isn’t your main focus as much as finding different solutions
to drive proven results to your customers and to do that you have to become specialized and
experienced in your specific niche.
Common niche problems
Here are few mistakes inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to make when choosing their niche.
- Lack of focus: the niche is too broad and generic; you must be willing to give up on a
lot of things to focus on one thing.
- Lack of clarity: the solution does not align and communicate with your customer’s
problems, and frustrations. This is caused by a lack of clarity of understanding of your
clients’ goals and desired outcomes.
- Lack of pain point: the niche does not connect to a conflict or a pain; it’s not a
necessity; it’s nice to have, but there is no urgency.
- Lack of profitability: the product is a commodity with low-margins and requires a
massive amount of sales to make little profit.
- Lack of addictivity: the service or product is not addictive or drives repetitive sales.
- Lack of variations: the niche is too narrow and can’t be expanded into a sub-category.
Market research
I have come across to work with many small business owners, and one of the most challenging
issues is that I’m always faced with their stubbornness of accepting the dynamic changes and
harsh truth of the market.
In this section, you and I will discover what the market offers to your customers, and develop a
plan to create a more cohesive solution that better serves the market.
The purpose of market research is to collect intelligence and have a 30,000 feet clear view of
what the market offers, and it’s NOT to copy the competition.
Your market research will help you to:
- Have a clear idea about what is currently offered in the marketplace.
- Have a clear idea about consumers’ feedbacks toward the market, what is working, and
what isn’t.
- Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors; this will guide you to
decide what to leverage and what to avoid.
- Identify hidden gaps in the market then build solutions that fill those gaps.
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10. - Understand why some clients choose to do business with some competitors rather than
doing business with you or with others.
Identify your direct competitors
When you are a small business, you don’t have the resources to compete with everyone in your
industry; therefore, you don’t need to research and worry about every competitor in the market.
Mostly, you will be competing with a small group of businesses considered to be your direct or
indirect competitors; the difference is that direct competitors compete with you head to head on
the same customer with the same offer and the same customer’s time.
In contrast, indirect competitors are considered to be complementary or alternative options to
your service.
McDonald’s does not directly compete with Pizzahut; McDonald’s directly compete with KFC
and Burger King, On the other hand, Pizzahut and Papa John’s are alternatives to Mcdonald’s
(Fast food, Same customer segment – indirect competitors)
However, five stars restaurants are not considered to be competitors at all since they serve a
different group of people, with various problems, wants, and needs, “people visit or hire them to
do a different set of jobs.”
How to identify your direct competitors
Head to Google/YouTube, and search for direct competitors of your niche, be specific.
- “Best coffee shops in Jordaan, Amsterdam.”
- “Best chicken burger restaurants in Los Angeles Melrose Avenue.”
- “Top U.S vintage apparel brands under $50. ”
- “High-end teenage fashion accessories stores in Sydney.”
- “Hair Stylist near me”
You will get a list of Websites and videos that are suggested by the search engine or written and
produced by bloggers, critics, magazines, and influencers.
Check them out, try to find repeated brands mentioned inside those different sources.
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11. Google - Competitors research
YouTube - Competitors research
The businesses that you find should be outstanding, make a list of those businesses’ names,
websites, and addresses, in case you might need to make a visit.
If you can’t find what you need on Google or YouTube, head to Amazon, Yelp, Trip Advisor,
Airbnb, Udemy, Apple store, or whichever marketplace your product is related to.
Search for:
- Service or business type + Location | Pizza restaurants Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New
York - Yelp, Tripadvisor
- Product or niche name | Dried dog food - Amazon
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12. - Product function or benefits | Time management - Apple App Store, Google Play Store
Google Play - Time management apps
When you are searching for your competitors and depending on your business type, consider
the following:
1. Location: if you have a brick and mortar shop, say, for example, a coffee shop, you want to
make sure to look for coffee shops within walking distance which might range up to 1 Mile/2KM
of your surrounding area, which equals to 15-20 minutes a short walk distance less or more.
2. Price tag: each brand, product, or service is offered to serve a specific need to a specific
group of people within a specific income class.
If you run a fast-food restaurant, the five stars fancy restaurant across the street is not going to
be your direct competitor most of the time, here is why:
Most of the customers who visit five stars restaurants daily value organic ingredients, luxurious
experience, and food cooked by famous chefs.
The restaurant is built and designed to deliver the illusion and perception of such a high price
tag.
For the people in high-class, this is a way of living; it’s highly unlikely to consider an ordinary
fast-food restaurant located around the corner.
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13. For the low-to mid-upper-class “working class,” this is a place where they celebrate special
occasions and anniversaries, people propose for marriage, hold a wedding, invite close friends
and family, arrange business meetings and the list goes on and on.
The lesson is: clients hire businesses and products to do a specific job at a particular time,
therefore focus on the businesses that fulfill the same jobs of yours.
Research Your Competitors:
Let’s look at some areas you can research about your competition:
- Location: this is one of the most strategic parts for many brick and mortar businesses;
choosing the right site can make or break a business.
The amount of foot traffic and the surrounding environment plays an essential role in the
survival of a business; many businesses get vanished or punished for choosing a cheap and
hidden location for the sake of saving money.
In contrast, other businesses flourish just because they “invested” in the right place, “location is
an investment, not a cost.”
If your competitors sell online, learn what platform do they sell on, is it Amazon, eBay, Etsy, or
their personal branded website? And why did they choose that platform over another?
- Business theme + customer type: people differ in preferences and personal choice when it
comes to taste and selecting the right environment that fits their style.
Different cultures, genres, levels of education, work, and life habits influence people’s choices
when it comes to choosing a business over another.
What kind of atmosphere, mood, theme, and style do your competitors create, and what kind of
customers, tribes, and communities do they attract?
- Best-selling products, features, and benefits: what products do your competitors brag
about the most? What products do they market the most? What is the top-selling product? What
problems do these products solve?
- Product offering: what makes your competitors’ deals and offers attractive to the customer?
Is it the product itself or the bonuses that come with the product?
What is the pricing model? Is there free shipping? What is the return policy? What is the
guarantee policy? How do they eliminate the risk of the offer?
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14. Nectar mattress
- Customers reviews: one of the most obvious mistakes that small business owners make
when it comes to market research is underestimating the importance of customer reviews.
However, If you know how to find customers' feedback of other brands and products and learn
from them, then you are golden!
You will not only know what sort of problems and frustrations you should solve and go after but
also what wants, needs, and desires to fulfill to attract and obtain those customers.
Five stars reviews are reviews that are written by fascinated fans — people who are in love with
the brand.
Or by the people who are not very sophisticated when it comes to quality and service, they
appreciate the brand effort as long as they were served and respected correctly.
On the other hand, one-star reviews are written by haters, those people don’t like any aspect of
the business no matter whatever you offer them, or they were in a terrible mood and projected
their inner discomfort toward the service of the brand.
Both sets of one and five stars reviews depend on a reactive emotional response; you get to
learn a little about what could be improved about the business.
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15. However, two, three, and four stars reviews are pretty useful; those customers have taken the
time to be present and analyze the business; they made a rational choice to think about the
store or product and give honest feedback.
The pros and cons they mention are a true reflection of the situation, not too emotional, not too
rational, how the overall feeling was. You find their words tend to be very descriptive, and on the
point, take notes!
Yelp customers reviews
Online communities customers reviews: search on Reddit and other small communities for
your competitor’s name, you could find some comments from people who dealt with the
business in the past. More honest and useful than reviews on online marketplaces, take notes!
Google - Competitors research
Study their sales page: product sales pages are a business’s offer page on a marketplace
such as Amazon, a brand website, a menu, or a product catalog; it’s a page where the brand is
doing its best to sell the product.
Study your competitors’ product title, the style of product photography, the copy of the
description, and the final offer including price, discounts, bonuses, guarantees, and shipping
fee.
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16. Koala mattresses product’s page
Study marketing activities: how do your competitors attract new customers offline? Do they
hold marketing events? Do they participate in trade shows and exhibitions? Do they advertise
on the radio? Do they sponsor podcasts? Do they host a podcast or a show?
How do they attract customers online? Do they advertise on Google local businesses? Do they
advertise on yelp or other market places?
Google local businesses advertising
16

17.
Yelp sponsored results
Head to Ispoinage.com and type in your competitor’s website name; this free fantastic tool will
allow you to spy on your competitors google ads, top keywords, and most importantly, their
product page, here you can see what offers they advertise and drive traffic to.
Ispionage competitors' marketing insights
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18.
Head to the Facebook ads library and type in your competitor’s name; this is a great tool that
allows you to spy on and see all the Facebook ads of your competitors, the benefit is that you
get insights on what your competitors are spending on promoting.
Facebook ads library competitors' advertising insights
Head to your competitors’ social media pages and observe how they present their brand,
products, and services.
Notice how MVMT present its products within a lifestyle brand rather than only promoting the
product
18

19.
Instagram - MVMT
Go through the comments and feedback of your competitors’ social media account, and watch
the tone and voice of how they interact with their audience.
How do they treat their customers from customer service to after-sale service? How do they
handle disputes?
Zappos social media customers support
19

20.
Try to give them a visit or a call, how would they greet and treat you? are they warm, kind, and
polite? Or rude and cold.
These communication skills are soft skills, and it’s what makes or breaks the relationship with
your customer.
Being rude or non-responsive could kill the brand’s reputation, on the other hand being polite
and responsive will nurture the relationship with your customers, drive brand loyalty and
repetitive sales.
Study email marketing offers: sign up for their email marketing list and study the offers they
deliver to your email inbox.
Buttercloth email marketing
This will be the end of your competitors’ research, remember the goal of the research is not to
copy your competition but to learn what is working in the market and what isn’t.
In the next step, you learn how to avoid the most common mistakes for developing your product,
service, or brand experience.
This research will provide you with insights into the most common mistakes small businesses
make with product quality, customer experience, marketing, and customer service.
Head to YouTube and search for “the worst-reviewed” followed by your niche, service, or
product.
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21. YouTube the worst-reviewed search results
Head to Google and search for “Site: Reddit the worst” followed by your niche, product, or
service.
Look for posts that drive conversations and take notes of what turns people off when it comes to
a specific experience.
Reddit the worst experiences’ topics
By now you should have a 360 degrees view of your market, you should be clear on the
following:
1. Who are your direct competitors?
2. What are their key activities?
3. What are their key strengths and weaknesses?
4. How do they attract customers?
5. What do people like and dislike around your niche?
6. What are the most common deadly mistakes to avoid in your niche?
Unique selling proposition USP
Most businesses try to beat each other by offering the same solution with the same features but
at a lower price or fulfill the service in a shorter period.
21

22. This strategy works fine for most commodity businesses because it’s easy.
However it’s a non-ending game, and it’s exhausting, someone else will always try to beat you
on price or speed and set higher expectations for the customer.
To develop a unique selling proposition is to develop an advantage that your competitors can’t
offer, many successful mega brands rely on this strategy to differentiate themselves from the
rest of the market, here are few examples:
- Different in style and design - Apple
- Different in the speed of delivery - Domino’s Pizza
- Different in the experience - m&m's
- Different in ingredients/features - Whole Foods
- Different in price and speed of fulfillment - Amazon.
- Different in human and environmental values - Panasonic
However, for a business to have a solid differentiation it has to align its brand promise with its
process, it can’t just pull a USP out of thin air and call it a unique differentiator.
Apple promise:!"#$!%&'!(")%!*'+,%-.,//0!1')-2$'1!+$1!)-(3/-.-'1!34"1,5%)!6!78'%9)!&-4'!%&'!
*')%!1')-2$'4)!"$!'+4%&:;
McDonald’s promise:!2'%!0",4!*,42'4!-$!/'))!%&+$!<=!)'5"$1)!'>'40!%-('?!'>'40#&'4'?!%&'!
)+('!@,+/-%0!2,+4+$%''1:!6!78'%9)!*,-/1!%&'!(")%!'..-5-'$%!34"5'))!+$1!)0)%'()!"$!'+4%&A;
Amazon promise: 2'%!0",4!2""1)!1'/->'4'1!%"!0",4!3/+5'!-$!B!&",4)!6!78'%9)!*,-/1!%&'!.+)%')%!
+$1!(")%!+1>+$5'1!1-)%4-*,%-"$!%'5&$"/"20!-$!%&'!CADA;
This strategy works best for large corporations because they have the resources to invest in
enormous operational infrastructure, bring their price down, speed up their delivery process and
stay ahead of the game.
However, this strategy doesn’t work well for small businesses for a simple reason, they don’t
have the financial stamina to play for the long-term and consistently offer products at a low
price.
Neither can they reinvent the business model and operational process consistently to make it
work faster and more efficiently.
This is one of the primary reasons why small businesses vanish, they try to adapt or
outcompete large businesses strategies rather than taking a different route.
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23.
Nowadays, customers take the speed of fulfillment and quality of the product for granted,
therefore such differentiators are becoming less and less effective unless they are done on a
different level such as Amazon two hours delivery.
Why do most small businesses do a terrible job of attracting customers?
Because most small businesses have nothing attractive, they aren’t desirable, look around you,
almost every business looks the same, feel the same and serve the same product, why would a
customer choose a business over another?
You see, most of the small businesses try to solve their revenue problems by throwing more
cash into useless advertising, promotions, and hiring a sales team to increase their bottom line,
ending up with small incremental changes.
They are tactical, not strategic, only fixing the symptoms rather than analyzing the root cause.
Looking for the core problem is pretty simple if you can see it, and very challenging and
frustrating if you can’t.
It requires you to look outside yourself, industry, or market, and question your thinking and
process.
Looking outside could be as simple as borrowing different ideas from various indirect
competitors, different industries, different cities or countries, different cultures or minorities,
different topics or fields of study, different genre styles, themes, and time eras.
Nowadays a small business if it wishes to succeed it has to compete on experience and
relationship, rather than competing on price or process efficiency, and the good news is, it will
cost less.
Head to YouTube and search for the following:
- Most Instagrammable | e.g. Most Instagrammable ice cream.
- Most unique | e.g. Most unique sandwiches.
- Product in place | e.g. Coffee in Tokyo.
- Product Theme | e.g. Cute cake.
23

24.
YouTube most Instagrammable products
Such differentiators will give your competition no choice but to copy your product or to come up
with a more unique offering.
It’s not about price or speed anymore, it’s about the experience.
Notice that the product doesn’t require taking the risk of inventing something entirely new, the
business has taken a lovable product by the mass but gave it a simple twist, be it size, color,
taste, theme, or presentation style.
This differentiator will not only separate you boldly from the competition but will also drive free
word-of-mouth marketing toward your business. Simply you have designed the marketing into
the product.
Here are few inspirations for you:
2D Bubble Tea Cafe in Kuala Lumpur
Colorful SoCal Desserts
11 Best Dessert Places in NYC
8 THEMED CAFES in Seoul
Big Seven Travel Blog
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25. Restaurants On The Edge | Netflix
Sugar Rush | Netflix
Developing a unique selling proposition
The primary key to developing a unique selling proposition is to first understand what your
customers want and love, which we developed previously in your solution proposition.
The second point is you have to understand what the market offers, and what people are
dissatisfied about, you don’t want to end with an offer that is precisely similar to what the market
offers if it doesn’t satisfy the market.
The third point is that you need to have an advantage over your competition, this could be the
advantage of speed, quality, skills, experience, taste, design, or simplification.
Once you have these three points locked in place, crafting your unique selling proposition
becomes pretty straightforward.
For a specific customer/pain point _____X_____ I will deliver a specific product/service/
experience _____XYZ______ unlike our competitors offer ______XYZ________.
Supply razor
Supply's unique proposition is that they provide sophisticated customers with elegant razors and
more effective, sharper, long-lasting, and budget-friendly blades compared to competitors’
brands.
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26. How to plan for winning in business
The concept of winning in business is simple if you can see it and visualize it.
Two major forces control the entire game of business.
The first force is the environment and market that you are playing at.
Every market has specific technological tools and cultural rules that surround your customers
and creates the illusion of their reality.
Those groups of specific customers have specific behaviors, wants, needs, frustration, and
desires that need to be fulfilled by you or by someone else.
Keep in mind that customers are consumers, not producers, and that’s why they have to work
hard, earn money, and pay for solving problems and gaining pleasure.
They are loyal to the business that benefits and treats them the best. Put it simply, they follow
businesses that look for their best interests, which means businesses that make them happier,
wealthier, and healthier, within their purchasing power, period.
The other force of the market is your competition. They are also working hard to acquire
customers and earn money, however, you shouldn’t commit the mistake of focusing your effort
on them rather than focusing on the customer.
Most small businesses are lazy and not creative enough to create winning strategies, and if you
blindly copy their tactics, you are putting yourself at the risk of driving your business to failure.
This doesn’t mean that you should not track their progress, you should, however, always keep
your primary focus on the market environment and satisfying the buying customer needs, they
are the beginning and the end of your business, everything else is just in between and
considered as minor details.
Focus on quality, precision, and long-term vision rather than sloppiness and short-term tactics,
do your research, and have a clear strategy of where you want to be. The rest is only a matter
of fearless execution.
Key Takeaways:
- To sell a premium product at a premium price, niche-down your product, and service to
serve unmet needs, wants, and desires for a specific group of people.
- Avoid low-margins, commodity, or unscalable products.
- Focus on products that require frequent use, habit-building products.
26

27. - Focus on products that could be developed into a brand collection and experience,
rather than a single product.
- Avoid inventing, instead find a lovable product and reintroduce it creatively.
- The goal of your research is to find unmet gaps and frustrations in your market and not
to copy your competition.
- There are two major methods to differentiate yourself and gain a competitive advantage
in the market:
1. Provide faster, cheaper, better quality products, and a more efficient and pleasant
experience.
2. Provide unique and unexpected outcomes and customers' experiences.
- Focus on improving the customer experience and strengthening the relationship with the
customer rather than focusing on competing on price.
Tell yourself; I want my customers when they visit my brand or receive my product to feel
............. (complete the sentence).
Let this statement make you think about the entire customers' experience from beginning
to end, the whole look, and the feeling of your brand, rather than only the function of the
product.
Please watch the following video:
Video - Market research
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28. Exercise: Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition
In this exercise, you will go through the four steps of finding your unique selling proposition.
Part1: find and validate your niche
1. Take your solution proposition from the last chapter and research for possible niches
then narrow it down to one specific niche, service, or product.
- Can you explain specifically for whom this solution is? What kind of a specific problem
does it solve? What kind of measured outcomes does it deliver?
2. Validate your niche demand on Google trends, Amazon, or other marketplaces.
3. Explain the reasons behind picking this niche through analytical market proof and
practical logic.
- Try to convince me as an investor to write you a check and invest in your idea.
- At this step, you don’t have to worry about how much revenue you can generate as
much as the size and scale of the pain point, frustration or desire.
Part2: study three direct competitors
1. Use Google or other marketplaces to search for the top three direct competitors.
2. Do in-depth competitive market research for the following:
- Location and environment
- Best-selling offers and pricing strategy
- Marketing and distribution channels | Where do they market and sell their products?
- Unique selling proposition
- Customers reviews | Pros and cons
3. Bonus: do YouTube and Reddit research for the worst-reviewed businesses in your
niche.
Platforms to find your competitors:
Yelp | Local businesses information + customers reviews
TripAdvisor | Local businesses information + customers reviews
Amazon | Products reviews
Angieslist | Businesses reviews
28

29. Capterra | Software reviews
Udemy | Educational content students reviews
Part3: find unique products/brand experience ideas
1. Search YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google for unique and creative ways of
presenting your products and brand.
2. Collect your ideas into a creative mood board.
A Quick tip: your inspiration board doesn’t have to be related to your product, you are
developing a new mindset of finding creative ways to compete on product differentiation and
word-of-mouth marketing rather than relying on a low-price strategy.
Pinterest - Creative mood board
Part4: create a unique selling proposition
1. Get clear on your customer avatar and pain point from the last chapter.
2. Identify what your competitors offer to your customer.
- Identify the weak points and frustrations your competitors offer? What is wrong with it?
Explain Why it’s not the best offer.
3. Identity your offer key differentiator.
- How does your solution differ from the competition? Is it faster? More efficient? More
effective? More pleasant? More entertaining?
4. Use the following formula to develop a unique selling proposition.
29

30. “For a specific customer/pain point _____X_____ I will deliver a specific product/
service/experience _____XYZ______ that differs from our competitors offer by
______XYZ________ ”
30

31. Develop A Unique Selling Proposition Worksheet
Use this document as a supporting worksheet for your exercise.
1. Find your niche
What is your solution proposition?
____________________________________________________________
What are the possible niches related to your solution?
1. ____________________________ 2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________ 4. ____________________________
5. _____________________________6. ____________________________
According to your skills and research which niche/product/service fits your market the best?
Why?
I have chosen: ____________________________
Because:
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Research three direct competitors
Find and research three direct competitors.
COMPETITOR - A COMPETITOR - B COMPETITOR - C
BASIC INFORMATION
Name
Location
31

32. Website
Style/theme/mood
CUSTOMERS INFORMATION
Target audience
group
Age:
______________
Sex:
______________
Style: _____________
Occupation:________
_
Motivation:_________
_
Age:
______________
Sex:
______________
Style: _____________
Occupation:________
_
Motivation:_________
_
Age:
______________
Sex:
______________
Style: _____________
Occupation:________
_
Motivation:_________
_
Specific needs/
problems
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Customers
purchasing power
[ ] Low-end
[ ] Middle-end
[ ] High-end
[ ] Low-end
[ ] Middle-end
[ ] High-end
[ ] Low-end
[ ] Middle-end
[ ] High-end
PRODUCTS INFORMATION
Best selling products
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
32

33. Best selling products
price
1.€/$ _____________
2.€/$ _____________
3.€/$ _____________
1.€/$ _____________
2.€/$ _____________
3.€/$ _____________
1.€/$ _____________
2.€/$ _____________
3.€/$ _____________
MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
Unique selling
proposition
Distribution channels
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Marketing channels
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Paid advertising
locations
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
BRAND IMAGE
33

34. Positive customers
reviews
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Negative customers
reviews
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
STRENGTHS
Cutting edge features
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Strong/unique
capabilities
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
34

35. Others
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
WEAKNESSES
Areas for
improvement
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Lack of capabilities
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Lack of resources
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
1.
________________
2.
________________
3.
________________
Others
35

36.
What are the most common mistakes small businesses commit in your niche?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
3. Find and collect creative products/brands experience ideas
4. Develop your unique selling proposition
My target avatar is: ____________________________________________
They have a specific challenge/pain point/desire: _______________________
36

37. Their desired outcome is:________________________________________
My competition offers them solutions with the following advantages/features/benefits:
1. ____________________________ 2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________ 4. ____________________________
Throughout my research, I found that my competition’s offer/product/service/solution is not the
best solution for the market because:
1. ____________________________ 2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________ 4. ____________________________
I will offer a product/service/solution that is different from the competition.
[ ] Faster by ______%
E.g. Faster by 25% than competitors’ brands
[ ] Cheaper by $/€ ______
E.g. Cheaper by €50 than competitors’ brands
[ ] More efficient: _____________________________________________
E.g. Simple app interface and workflow process
[ ] More effective: _____________________________________________
E.g. 3X the results in 2X less time of competitors brands
[ ] More convenient: ___________________________________________
E.g. Monthly subscription plan delivered automatically to the customer’ door.
[ ] Better quality/describe how ___________________________________
E.g. Organic homemade food made of ingredients harvested from small local farms.
[ ] Better experience ___________________________________________
E.g. Unique theme store/personalized customer service/customized product
[ ] Other _____________________________________________________
Use the following formula to develop a unique selling proposition.
37

38. “For a specific customer/pain point _____X_____ I will deliver a specific product/service/
experience _____XYZ______ that differs from our competitors offer by ______XYZ________ ”
42234
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