Effective marketing means being remembered. Today, that means creating a position that your audience regards as ‘different’ from the perceived competition.
So here we are, marketing our business. We’re using a variety of methodologies and tactics in order to get our message out to our target audience. Right?
But there’s a big problem with this position: Everyone else is doing the same thing.
Business Marketing Madness
Audiences are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every day. Brands continue to find ever more creative means to get in front of us. But today’s innovative tactic is yesterday’s cliché, as we all end up doing the same thing.
What’s almost as bad, is that many brands are all saying pretty much exactly the same thing. How great their service is. How personable their sales staff are. The high quality of their product or service. While the consumer has more of a choice than ever before, it seems that it’s just more of the same.
So with all this noise, how can a company make its voice heard? Well, certainly not by contributing to the noise, that’s for sure.
‘Different’ Is The New Normal
If your idea of marketing communication is based along the lines of ‘do pretty much what everyone else is doing, but better’, then you are most certainly going to fail. You’re only adding to the confusion, rather than cutting through it. Businesses need to find their own voice, and be different (and brave) enough. That’s the only way that, today, they have a hope of being remembered.
Here’s a great video that I found, promoting a book by Harvard Business School Professor Youngme Moon. It pretty much sums-up the current state of play. (Click on the image below to play the video. Click here if you can’t see the video below).
You can no longer get attention by shouting louder, like you could in the old days (i.e. anything more than about 5 years ago).
Today, you get attention by sounding different.