Are You Different Or Are You Just Like The Masses?

Posted by Sant Qiu in : Strategic Positioning & Branding on November 5, 2007 , trackback

Are you different? Do you stand out from the crowd? Are you unique compared to the rest of your competitors?

If you take a look around, you will notice that all extremely successful people and businesses are different compared to their competitors. They have put in the effort to stand out from the crowd. This is an extremely powerful albeit logically simple concept that will give you the edge over your competitors.

In fact, one of the first things I help all my clients do is to create a distinct differentiation against their competitors. Using this strategy I’ve helped them triple even quadruple their businesses easily.

There are many benefits for being different. One of the most important one is that when you’re different people sit up and take notice and they will remember you more. Psychologists have proven this. Just imagine a yellow Lamborghini zooming pass you on the highway, or a beautiful shapely girl in a bikini walking in the mall, or the disfigured man with only one arm who is with her. You would have remembered those wouldn’t you?

Why? Because they are DIFFERENT from the norm. Different from the boring masses. And if you want to be successful and make more money, you must be different too.

Sadly, most businesses (and people) give little thought about creating a difference that will give them the competitive edge. They are just content to blend in with the rest or take the easy path and copy others. They are trapped in what I call “me tooism”. This strategy will only yield mediocre results. And in the long haul they won’t survive.

Part of the reason why most people neglect to create a differentiation for their business is because differentiating takes guts. You will stick out like a sore thumb. And this is very uncomfortable for the majority of the people. They would rather fit in with the masses. They want to belong. They want to feel that sense of security and comfort among the masses. But in the business world, a sense of security in the masses is an illusion like feeling safe in the Titanic while it’s heading towards that iceberg.

Now, if you know for certain, beyond any doubt, that your business won’t survive without differentiating, just like the Titanic would sink when it hit the iceberg, what will you do? I hope you start differentiating yourself.

And if you’re thinking of differentiating yourself, start by asking the question: “What do my target market wants? What benefits are they looking for?” You can easily turbo-charge your differentiation by creating it based on the desires and benefits your target market want.

I’ll cover more on specific ways to differentiate yourself in the next few posts.

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