Are You Being Commoditized?

Please! Please buy my commodity!

There’s a great definition of a commodity on Wikipedia.  It says:

..it is a product that is the same no matter who produces it… one of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole…

So, if what you are doing shows no effectual differentiation between your competitors, then you better wake up!  You are being commoditized (this is happening in my industry, and CPA firms are still asleep!).  When you’re commoditized, all you have to compete on is price.  And when you compete on price, the low price dealer gets the job or gets to sell the product or service to the consumer.  Believe me, you don’t want to play there.  That’s where Wal-Mart plays, and frankly, they stink and don’t add any value to my life.

Instead, be innovative, and change the delivery of your commodity into a value-added service.  That is, create a new way to deliver your product, or an add-on service to go along with the commodity or even scrap your product all together and rebuild it in a way your industry has not done before.  This will create your own specialized market for your product or service and will allow you to charge a premium because the consumer can’t get it from anyone else.

Anything I missed?  Do you disagree?  Leave it in the comments.

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