A brand is ordinary when it blends with everyone in the category
About a month ago, I was on a Zoom call with an excited Director of Marketing. She told me how different their product or service is from everyone they compete with within the marketplace. When I looked at their website and competition, I knew she was wrong.
Wishfully, she wanted there to be a difference, but I didn’t see any evidence from the core messaging.
I did several interviews of their customers and asked them about the marketplace, and described each company and its brands. The customers used the same language to describe everyone in the category.
One of their recent customers told me, that in her mind there wasn’t any meaningful difference among the companies in the category – and if there was, she isn’t sure how she’d describe it. They actually flipped a coin to choose a vendor for this service.
What I Often Hear From The Brand
When a brand is genuinely different, customers have a language, narrative, or phrase to use to explain what is meaningfully different. Stakeholder interviews are valuable when conducted by a semi-objective outsider because they seek the truth, not trying to confirm their team’s bias.
Signals that your brand is ordinary when you tell me:
- We have the best people.
- We have the best quality.
- Our service is #1.
- We are priced competitively.
- We offer a better value.
- Customers love working with us.
Those are all table stakes – the minimum required to be in the game.
Examples Of Brands With Distinctive Differences
What does a genuinely distinctive brand look like?
- Only Cost Plus Drugs gives you a meager price for your Rx. This Mark Cuban brand exclusively uses word of mouth for one person with diabetes to tell another about their super low price. Their language: No Middleman. No Price Games. Huge Drug Savings.
- Only LL Bean offers a lifetime guarantee on anything you buy from our catalog or store. Their core message –GOOD FOREVER helps customers tell a story.
- Only LUSH makes truly handmade cosmetics with an obsession for ethically sourced ingredients. Lush’s trademark is its passion for fresh and natural homemade beauty products. No human being can pronounce in an industry so saturated with brands that use chemicals and ingredients. Their products are handmade and use natural and organic ingredients.
- Only Airstream RVs offers a retro look and feel – past meets future. Their RVs look and feel, unlike all others on the market. The Body Beautiful. The principal reason Airstreams are expensive is the Aluminium body they are so famous for. The shell of an airstream is made from a high-quality “aircraft grade” aluminum alloy riveted over a steel frame. This is insulated, and an inner shell of aluminum is riveted on from the inside.
- Only YOH recruiting speaks your language. No jargon. It looks, sounds, and feels, unlike other recruiting competitors.
- Only Enterprise will pick you up at home when renting a car from us. Their tagline reinforces this idea – WE PICK YOU UP. They recently shifted this strategy but serve as a great example of truly standing out from the crowd in simple language everyone understands.
Brands Need Shorthand Language Customers Can Share
When someone tells me they serve females, veterans, vegans, or veterinarians, I know they are more precise on having a point of difference. But without language that helps customers tell your differentiation story, you limit how customers can spread the word. Crisp, specific, and distinct language can make all the difference in the world. Difference and distinctiveness start with positioning.
An ordinary brand talks about the category – not what makes them distinctive and separate from the crowd.
Helping customers with words and phrases they can tell their friends that emphasize your point of difference is critical. Branding strategists and agencies can help you identify a meaningful difference and provide shareable words.
Does your brand have easy-to-share language that spotlights your difference?
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
