Odd Man Out

When It's Good to Be Different

ecently, an Essential Wholesale employee was interviewed for an article about the importance of making sure your products stand out in a crowd. Being the "odd man out" is critical if you are to make the most of your business and also make the most profits!

      

When I was a little girl, I lived in Japan and boy did I stand out in the crowd! My most vivid memories of Japan are from walking in downtown Tokyo with all the vibrant colors. I had super blonde hair and stood out in the jam-packed city streets. I remember that everywhere I went I was pulled aside to pose for photographs with perfect strangers. As I walked around the Japanese found me to be quite a novelty. Strangers would motion to me while speaking Japanese to pose in their photos. I stood with families and individuals waiting for flashbulbs to pop.  Everywhere I went I was noticed. 

It was the late 1960's and early 1970's and the streets of Japan were not filled with blonde headed tourist like they are today. We were transferred to America when I was nearly five. We moved to California and suddenly no one noticed me. I was all of a sudden like everyone else. I walked the streets of San Mateo without fanfare. I blended into the crowd. It was perfectly fine for me to no longer be photographed and stared at. However, from a business standpoint you certainly don't want your products to blend into the shelves of the store unseen and unnoticed masses. You want your products to attract attention and knock the buyers off their feet. You want people to be unable to resist picking them up and looking at them.

You also want to clearly define what your products are and what your company stands for. When I moved to America from Japan I remember being in my new classroom telling people where I was from. I was told that I spoke very good English for being Japanese. I tried to explain that I was an American, but was too young to fully understand how it was that as an American I was just now arriving on the scene from a foreign country. I clearly wasn't explaining to my classmates that I was an American that had been living in Japan. They heard that I was Japanese. I thought the blonde hair and blue eyes were a dead give-away of my nationality. But my classmates were not as familiar with the Japanese as I was.

Are your products defining who you are? Do they say anything about where you are from or the story of your company? Or are you assuming that your customers know more about your product than you are telling? Make certain that your products stand out in a crowd and define your company.

Here at Essential Wholesale, we want to help you tell your story and our graphics and private label departments can help you do just that.