In the world of marketing, we always talk about differentiation. So then why is it that most companies look just like their competition? It’s because you do the same thing. The game is essentially played the same by both teams. You have to figure out some way to do things differently in order to separate yourself from the pack of similar competitiors. That’s really the key to successful marketing.
So then what can you do if you don’t do anything differently? Make something up. I don’t mean that you should lie. I mean, you should invent something that makes you different. What if you own a hamburger joint. All hamburger places serve fries, shakes and a coke. So what can you do to be different? Sonic did a good job by making their place a drive-in restaurant. McDonald’s has done a good job by building play places for the kids. But what could you do to come up with something that no one else is doing? Now that’s the million dollar question. But if you put your mind to it, you could come up with some pretty creative ways to make your hamburger place different than all of the others. Maybe it could have a tropical theme. Or how about a Southern BBQ. You could become known for the BBQ sauce that no one else has. Look at KFC. They’ve differentiated themselves just by sticking to their secret mixture of 11 herbs and spices, or something like that. No one else uses that same mixture so KFC is different than the others.