It is crucial for business brands and personal brands to be unique – as in, to offer, speak, claim, and connect in ways that very few (or no others) do.
Being unique on its own is very effective at carving portions in the collective consciousness of vast audiences. It creates a specific framework for the natural comparison processes that happen in our brains. However, without context, uniqueness has more of an isolating effect similar to a tiny tropical island in the middle of an ocean.
The real power of being unique is the context of how it is valuable to audiences.
This is followed immediately by being able to back it up authentically with experiences. Few things thwart brand claims more than inconsistency and inaccuracy!
To achieve this needed context; you must gather significant amounts of information.
I: KNOW THYSELF: individual capacity, skills, and preferences; leadership team, total operations.
How are you different/better than others?
What can you do that others can’t/won’t? (Patent/TM, culture, specific technology, margins, published morals/ethics, etc.)
What do you do better than most, yet is available to all? (Speed, creativity, product fit, scope, scale, distribution, domain knowledge, etc.)
II: KNOW AUDIENCES: Who are they, how to identify, who they trust, who trusts them, where they go for info.
What do they want?
What do they need (likely not yet identified)?
What do they like/appreciate (physical products/services as well as emotional attributes like style, tone, personality, humor, causes, etc.)
III: KNOW THE SPACE: Who are your direct competitors and what do they offer (their advantages)?
Include “No Decision” as a direct competitor profile with its advantages/disadvantages
What else is vying for attention and budget (but not directly related)?
What are you asking of audience (make it clear, easy, and rewarding)?
With these starting questions; all you need to do is put forth the time and effort to organize the answers in order to become uniquely-valuable.
David R Frick 
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