I had three meetings last week, with businesses all talking about how their brand was different or how they were seeking to market themselves on a 'differentiating' platform. This set me thinking, is difference really what we should be aiming for? It sounds good on paper, but is it achievable?
For example lets look at the car market.
Most cars on the road are fundamentally they’re the same (excepting Tesla and one or two others). A colleague used to recount how the head of Porsche in the UK said to him “these days all cars are well made, and there isn’t much to separate them when you look under the hood”.
If you focus on difference - with cars - where does it get you, if indeed they are all the same mechanically? You end up talking about the latest new bit of tech - which everyone will soon have - or maybe you talk about driveability, comfort, space, provenance, the journey… but in the end, is any of it that differentiating?
Let me give another analogy from a very different category: books. I doubt author’s start with how can I be different? In fact, it would probably be very difficult to be different as a writer, especially as there are meant to be only 7 basic plots/stories. I can’t tell you the secret to writing a great book, I’d suggest reading Stephen Kings book for this. But I can tell you that great books are always interesting, that they create stories that pull you in and engage you. The same could be said for film, TV shows or even television advertising. To be different in books requires you to be interesting, to find different ways of tackling common human themes (life, death, loss, love, envy etc.). In other words what an author does is to create interesting stories about things we are already familiar with.
I admit brands are more tricky, but I wonder whether if more effort was spent on how to be interesting rather than different, it might make life a lot easier.
Which takes me back to cars and Tesla. Is Tesla really that different? It’s an electric car, there are a bunch of them and it wasn’t the first either, not even close. No, I’d argue it’s Tesla’s story that makes it interesting. The David vs Golliath of the car industry, Elon Musk’s daring do to put everything on the line, etc.
So how do you find what makes you interesting or what stories to tell? Here are some questions to ask that might help.
- Why was the business originally started?
- What was the founder’s vision?
- What would customers miss if the business were gone?
- What do you say to potential employees to attract them to your business?
- Imagine you were pitching your business for investment, what would you say to attract investors?
- What do you do for people really and can you tell that in an interesting way?
- Do you have a purpose beyond simply selling more of what you offer?
What would you add to help businesses understand how to be more interesting?