How do I stop being a commodity in a crowded category?

The short answer

Stop competing on the attributes everyone claims and pick one buyers actually feel. In crowded categories every brand says quality, service and value, which cancels out. Differentiation comes from choosing something specific enough that some buyers will reject you for it.

If nobody rejects you, nobody chooses you

Positioning that offends nobody attracts nobody. The brands that escape commodity status all take a position some segment dislikes.

Write down what you are deliberately bad at. If you cannot, you have not positioned anything.

Find the attribute buyers can feel

Speed, depth, narrowness, a particular kind of customer, an unusual process. It has to be something the buyer experiences rather than something you assert in a strapline.

Ask ten customers why they chose you over the alternative. The answer is usually one specific thing, and usually not what your marketing leads on.

Then over-commit

Build the whole business around it, including the parts that cost you. A differentiator you would abandon under pressure is only a claim.

Quick answers

What if my product genuinely is the same?

Then differentiate on the experience around it. Service model, speed, guarantee and buying process are all real and all defensible.

Does price count as positioning?

Only at the extremes, and only if your cost base supports it. Being slightly cheaper is not a position, it is a discount.

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