When you look at a set of twins, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference. How else would they get away with switching places?! However, if you were to ask their mother to tell you which one is which, she would have no problem answering that question. Why is that? Despite the similarities that seem overwhelmingly prominent, there are key differences in each twin that make them unique.
Fuel was able to produce word clouds that allow us to identify ways in which we differentiate ourselves from Pillar VC. When looking at York IE’s word cloud, ‘york’ and ‘spotlight’ stand out among our company’s messaging. As York IE is only in its first year, the company needs to promote itself and, therefore, ‘york’ is the most prominent word, or topic, found in our messaging. ‘Spotlight’ is also frequented in our messaging. One of the missions of York IE is to shine a spotlight on the entrepreneurs we work with, which explains why ‘spotlight’ is so large in the word cloud. Pillar VC has been in business since 2016 and therefore has moved past early stage promotion. The company is now more focused on startups built in Boston, which becomes clear when looking at its word cloud.
Differentiators
This is no different when comparing companies from the same industry. Although on the surface two companies may seem identical, the inner workings of the company and the products and services they offer differentiate themselves. It is up to the company to identify these differentiators in order to leverage its messaging over its competitors. If a company cannot identify why its idea is different, it will be very difficult to capture the attention of potential consumers.How We Compare
At York IE, we use our market data and analytics platform, Fuel, to compare companies and identify ways to leverage a startup’s messaging over its competitors. Using Smart Notebooks, Fuel allows us to place two companies side by side and compare their Technology Stacks, Strength of Voice, and Funding. We recently worked with Defendify in identifying what its competitors were saying in their messaging. We focused on comparing each company’s Strength of Voice, focusing on key words that were prominent among the messaging. Fuel produces images known as ‘word clouds’ which are composed of words used in each company’s messaging. The size in which the word appears indicates the frequency, or importance, of that specific word relative to the company’s earned and owned content. For example, we can compare York IE with another forward-looking firm, Pillar VC, using a Smart Notebook on Fuel. (left: York IE; right: Pillar VC)
Fuel was able to produce word clouds that allow us to identify ways in which we differentiate ourselves from Pillar VC. When looking at York IE’s word cloud, ‘york’ and ‘spotlight’ stand out among our company’s messaging. As York IE is only in its first year, the company needs to promote itself and, therefore, ‘york’ is the most prominent word, or topic, found in our messaging. ‘Spotlight’ is also frequented in our messaging. One of the missions of York IE is to shine a spotlight on the entrepreneurs we work with, which explains why ‘spotlight’ is so large in the word cloud. Pillar VC has been in business since 2016 and therefore has moved past early stage promotion. The company is now more focused on startups built in Boston, which becomes clear when looking at its word cloud.
