“Consumers today have become a cynical mob of buyers who believe the reviews and ratings of complete strangers much more readily than your brand’s promises and distinctions.”
The marketing landscape is a consumers’ hell.
Rampant in the marketplace, we have ordinary brands parading around and sounding like something special — the next greatest thing — while a plethora of truly extraordinary products and services fail to convey their distinction, coming across as a commodity, with little perceived value. What’s a consumer to think?
That’s a major problem.
Not only for the consumer but for the manufacturer who will be outsold by inferior me-too products that happen to have their branding skills more honed and/or more inventive.
The result is consumers becomes what we have today: a cynical mob of buyers who believe the reviews and ratings of complete strangers more easily than your brand’s promises and distinctions. Painful but true. The result is providing so many choices to the consumer that their heads spin or, in total desperation, hit the consumer at every angle as shown in this video.
Branding: The Art of Differentiation
Those 4 words, The Art of Differentiation, came to me in a TV interview when I was asked what branding was.
No matter what you do for your brand, it must result in brand differentiation.
Why? Because if it’s not different, it’s the same. And “same” equals commodity, which equals no perceived value which will cost you sales and growth.
You could almost say — in the world of branding, shopping, consumer experience and anywhere commerce is occurring — if your brand has little perceived value, it lacks differentiation (deja vu alert: resulting is lost sales and much more).
All of which led me to develop this pie chart.
It’s Your Turn to Win
If you’ve got a superior brand, it really is a felony not to give it superior branding.
What is superior branding? Anything that:
- helps your brand be seen as distinct
- helps your brand stand apart and not blend in
- helps your brand to be memorable and thought of when your product or service is needed
- helps your brand be seen as a necessary part of living, not some expendable luxury
- helps you change the playing field do your not seen in the same way as your competition
Those are worthwhile points. And, just as a reminder, they’re not “something nice to achieve.” They’re an integral part of your cost of sale. Integral.
Use this information and win big. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above.
And please retweet this and share on your LinkedIn networks. The more who know and use this, the better off we all are. Wishing you success.
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