Company first versus product first

In conversation with an entrepreneur of a webshop with sustainable products, the question was: What do you put first on your webshop homepage?

An important question, because in terms of attention value, only one element on the page can require the most attention.
How can you choose your positioning wisely so that you cannot be copied and that the most important customer values your best qualities highly?
And how do you get everything on the homepage that is already so full?

I recently spoke to an entrepreneur who asked me: "I have a nice mood board for a new look and feel for the website. Can you take a look at it?" It is an entrepreneur who has an online store where he sells things. It is found in flowers and bulbs.

And there is now a row of products on it and they actually wanted to do more branding. Then the question is, you only have one homepage. The most important page. What are you going to put on that? Your products, services or are you going to apply more branding to them? That means. By branding I mean, what is your company about?

What do you stand for? What is your brand promise? What can you? What makes you completely different from others? What things are those? What is your culture? Does that have anything to do with it? Fit exactly to the target group. That's quite a difficult one. And then I said: you should try to combine. Take a look at an online store like Ikea.

Ikea has many products. But in the meantime they tell something about the atmosphere and what Ikea stands for. You can see that it is quick to make. It is priced low, so you don't have to feel guilty if you throw it away, you can buy news. It looks quite trendy.

The photos are neat, it's all very neatly done. Very light site, but not super designy because that is very expensive. At Ikea they design a thing well, very functionally and then it is made on a large scale. So this webshop seller advised: start combining. Now only products are offered.

Also check out: How do you get that branding? What is the tone of voice? What is the target group? How do you want to address the target group? But also why doesn't the customer buy until now? What makes your company very different from other companies? What elements are those? In this case a sustainable company.

And what is it? What do you think is important about that? What aspect does the competition have that is also sustainable? Not much competition yet, but it is coming. Within sustainable development, what is very specific in your organization? Can we highlight that? And where is the added value that makes customers willing to pay extra? Everyone understands sustainability.

That is often more expensive too. It lasts longer and you ensure that the production processes do not negatively affect nature or people. What aspect of your organization is very special? What others actually can't do very well. And what customers really appreciate is why they could choose you. Preference.

In addition, of course, you have the product. You have the product features. So far they have only focused on product features and benefits of a product. Well it's more pricey so yeah, is it the only way to compete when you look at price? Are there other sustainable providers? You also have to distinguish between that.

What are the features then? What makes it different? And then of course you can go back to the idea that you put something in bulbs and it is grown sustainably with very good soil. You can of course make the connection that these bulbs last longer than regular bulbs due to the good soil and, compared to other sustainable bulbs, they are much more resistant to all kinds of diseases because there is much more experience.

The company has been running for six years and our competitors have only been in business for two years, so you can highlight that. So in addition to just good photos, atmosphere and styling that suit the target group, you also emphasize one or two things in the product features that others simply do not have and cannot do. And you also do the same for your organizational branding.

And so you can create something unique combined that is difficult to copy. Very specific, also part of your culture, part of your company and highly appreciated by customers who are willing to pay for it. Well that was just a conversation I had with an entrepreneur. Of course, there is a whole methodology behind it, but these are important choices you make.