In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and its follow-up book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Jack Trout writes about the importance of “exclusivity”, of “creating your own category” and of “owning a word”.
                   But many product and service categories today are already owned by someone. Home Depot might own building supplies in your market, and Coke probably owns colas.
                   If you look in the Yellow Pages under restaurants, for example, you will probably see someone already claims steaks, another claims seafood, another claims pizza, someone probably claims home-cooked burgers and yet another claims Chinese or Italian cuisine.
                   Here is a tip that will help you to uncover a category your clients can own on your airwaves.
                   Look for an experiential category to own instead of a product or service category. By choosing an experience to own, rather than a product or service, your clients can actually broaden their target audience.
                   In restaurants, for example, who owns the “romance” category in your market? Probably no-one. In the romance category, you have the ability to offer steaks, seafood, Italian or Chinese.
                   Who owns the “private business luncheons” category in your market? Or the “served in less than 10 minutes” category?
                   Does someone own fun and parties?
                   By choosing an experiential category which no one owns in the minds of your audience, your client has the opportunity to become a market leader. Wal-Mart, for example, doesn’t own a product or service category, they own an experience….low prices. Michelin doesn’t own tires, they own safety. Another tire manufacturer, Pirelli, owns performance…again, an experience, not a product or service.
                   That does not mean if you promote the romance category that the only time people will go to your restaurant is on a first date, Valentines Day or on their anniversary. It just means your restaurant now has a chance to stand for something and to be remembered. In today’s advertising maze, it is no longer adequate to just “keep your name in front of the public”. You have to stand for something to be remembered.
                   If you can help your client to discover a unique experience they can own, you will help their advertising to work harder for them and assure yourself of more renewals.
                    As always, your unique experiential offering must actually be delivered by the client, not just advertised.