This is unique.
I know more than most when it comes to building a digital business that lasts.
I launched my first online business, www.serchen.com, in September 1997. And its still going strong 28 years later.
A lot has happened since then …
- 1998 – Google 🚀
- 1999 – Napster 🚀
- 2001 – Wikipedia 🚀
- 2004 – Facebook 🚀
- 2004 – Podcasts 🚀
- 2005 – Youtube 🚀
- 2006 – Twitter 🚀
- 2007 – iPhone 🚀
- 2008 – Chrome browser 🚀
- 2009 – Bitcoin 🚀
- 2010 – Instagram 🚀
- 2011 – Snapchat 🚀
- 2013 – Zoom 🚀
- 2017 – TikTok 🚀
- 2018 – GDPR 🚀
- 2022 – ChatGPt 🚀
And if that wasn’t enough, there was the 2008 Market Crash, Brexit, a Pandemic and 8 different prime minsters. (3 labour and 5 conservatives, for the history nerds).
Navigating change is never easy, but experiencing 3 decades of change has given me a unique insight.
I’m in the business of selling insight, so having a unique one is pretty important.
I’m getting to my point, I promise….. 🥁
There are 8,400 digital agencies in the UK. Less than 40% have been trading for longer than 10 years (3,360). Only 2% are focussed on data-driven marketing. (67)
If you took those 67 agency owners and put them in an admittedly small room. None of those other owners has shared my journey.
Thats what I mean by unique.
My agency isn’t interchangeable. You cant price match us. Compare us on services and offerings. We have a unique set of skills and experiences that have enabled us to grow and thrive over 3 decades of immense change. We are in a category of one.
A category of one
A “category of one” means your business is so different or special that customers can’t compare you to anyone else.
You’re not just better, you’re in your own lane.
Instead of competing on price or features, you stand out because:
- You solve the problem in a unique way
- Your story or style is unmatched
- You offer something no one else does
It’s not about being the best in your category. It’s about creating a new category—and owning it.
Being a category of one means you don’t compete on price, features, or comparison charts, because there’s no one else quite like you.
You become the only choice for the buyer, which means less pushback, shorter sales cycles, and more loyalty over time.
How to get there
- Start by solving a problem in a way that only you can. Don’t copy what competitors are doing. Build your own process, your own method, or your own take on how the problem should be solved. The goal is for customers to feel like no one else offers what you do
- Next, have a clear point of view. Say something that others in your space aren’t brave enough to say. This is what draws the right people in. If your message is generic, you’re just another option. But if it’s bold and specific, people remember you.
- You need to be known for one thing. Not ten. Focus on a single offer, a single result, or a single transformation. When people think of that one thing, your name should pop into their head automatically.
Guess who?
Lets look at a real life example:
A national pizza brand. A household name. True masters of positioning.
Over decades they manage to carve out a niche so successfully they decimated the competition in multiple countries.
What was their positioning?
More cheese? Better Dough? Fresher toppings? No. It was faster delivery.
They leaned into the speed and quality of delivery so hard that 99% of readers already know who I’m talking about.
They created a category of one. They owned it. Arguably not just for the pizza market, but for the entire fast food delivery market.
The brand of course is Dominos Pizza!
Avoid becoming a commodity
The opposite of a category of one is a commodity business.
In a commodity business, you’re one of many. Customers can’t see a clear difference between you and competitors, so they choose based on price, speed, or convenience.
You’re interchangeable. Competing feels like a race to the bottom, lower margins, more churn, constant pressure.
Heres a real life example of what not to do
Remember Dominos? The brand with the incredible positioning? A category of one. Dominating the competition.
They recently decided to take a new path…
Presumably chasing growth or having a serious case of FOMO, they decided to sell their pizza on two of the UK’s largest food aggregators. Uber Eats & Just Eat.
Overnight they devalued their unique positioning, and elevated the brands of hundreds if not thousands of local competitors.
When you put your brand on a marketplace there are really only two levers of positioning. Price & Ratings.
Ratings are much harder to influence at scale. The more you sell of anything, the number of negative ratings increases proportionally. This basically translates into independent sellers, almost always outranking national chains. (watch the video)
Breaking news: The marketplace doesn’t care who is category leader. They just care about total category sales.
So that leaves them with one remaining lever of control. Price. But guess what. Theres always a cheaper pizza somewhere. Thanks to the marketplace apps the consumer can now find it easier than ever.
To make matters worse, the very thing the brand was known for in the first place. Fast, reliable deliveries. Is now being sold as a commodity. You can now pay more to get your food faster from any seller on these apps!
Finally, as if that wasn’t all bad enough. The customer no longer belongs to Dominos. The relationship is being built with the app NOT the restaurant. This is the same playbook Amazon has used for the last 3 decades.
In 5 years time do you think I’ll be able to describe that same brand to you in the same way, and have you know their name?
My advice
Lean into your uniqueness, highlight it, focus on it, share it. Do everything in your power to make yourself a category of one!
Avoid the lure of anything which is attempting to turn your business into a commodity. You’ll experience short term gains, but long term no one will know your name.
