It’s a logical playbook but often falls short. Why? Two main reasons:
Most categories are crowded and real, ownable differentiation is rare. For every category disruptor, there are thousands of companies with agreeable substitutes.
Brand differentiation is inherently competitor- and not customer-focused. In order to be different, you need to be different in comparison to someone or something. There’s value in competitor benchmarking and having a pulse on where you stack up to others, but the best companies and brands take a customer-focused approach.
A customer-focused approach is the key to building a successful brand, and for customers, a successful brand is one that is meaningful. Building brand meaning stems from evaluating what your customers care about on multiple dimensions, evaluating what your company can effectively deliver, and finding the intersection of the two.
What customers care about:
Relevance
Is this brand useful to me, do they understand me, can they provide tangible value?
Trust
Do I believe what this brand is saying to be true?
Emotional connection
How does this brand make me feel and is that feeling a positive one?
When your brand can check the boxes above for your customers and slot into their lives in a manner that’s helpful, natural, intuitive, and personal, you start the formation of a brand that is meaningful.
Brand differentiation, if you should land there, then becomes the output of a meaningful brand strategy, and not the goal.
