By Cat Johnson
Supplement industry and coworking spaces thrive on branding, not just product, and success hinges on targeting and differentiating for specific markets.
- The success of businesses, including supplement companies and coworking spaces, largely depends on their branding and positioning to stand out from competitors — even when their core products or services are similar or the same.
- Companies must identify and understand their ideal customers to tailor their branding and marketing efforts effectively.
- A strong, unique brand that resonates with the intended audience is key, as it is not the generic product but the relationship and the experience of the customer that builds loyalty and defines success.
I recently learned something that blew my mind.
It’s obvious that a lot of companies sell supplements. But there are a lot fewer supplement manufacturers than there are these companies that sell supplements. Which means—I learned—that many supplement companies all get their products from the same manufacturers.
So the success of these supplement companies comes down to marketing, branding, positioning and target market.
Which is kind of crazy, right?
But it’s an incredible example of how understanding who you are and who you serve is your biggest differentiator.
For example, one supplement company may target athletes, and their brand may evoke feelings of power, endurance, discipline; another may target women over 50 and focus their brand around staying active, living a quality life and keeping up with their grandkids; and a third may target college-age students and create a vibe of hangover recovery, mental sharpness and sleep support.
And they could all be selling the same products—although presented very differently.
And the same goes for coworking spaces.
You all have desks, fast Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and good coffee. But that’s just the supplement—that’s just the product—the thing that everyone has. It says nothing about who you’re for, how you help them and why you’re the right choice for a particular person.
There’s zero branding or positioning in the fact that you have meeting rooms and coffee. So does every coworking space in the world. Maybe you have a location advantage, but that’s only an advantage until another space moves in. Maybe you have a price advantage, but competing on price is a race to the bottom, which I don’t recommend.
Your brand is not your chairs, meeting rooms, Wi-Fi, coffee machine or even event programming. It includes all of these things, but every coworking space has these and the future is coming fast. There will be many times as many coworking spaces in the next few years as there are right now.
So, since you don’t want to sell generic supplements or a generic coworking space, get to work creating and strengthening your brand.
Who are you for? Who is a perfect fit for your space? Who will benefit the most from joining your community? Figure this out and then go find them.
Focus all your energies on attracting your best-fit members. You can’t serve everyone, and trying to do so will result in a diluted, vanilla brand that truly attracts or serves no one.
Imagine a supplement company trying to target athletes, women over 50 and college students all at the same time.
It doesn’t work with supplements, and it doesn’t work with coworking.
By Cat Johnson
Cat Johnson is an industry-leading brand community coach for coworking space operators around the world. She runs Coworking Convos and The Lab marketing club for indie coworking spaces. She writes about coworking, content and community in her weekly emails and blog posts at catjohnson.co
