Differentiation has become a holy grail in PR and branding. It’s evangelized most fervently in Differentiate or Die: Survival in our Era of Killer Competition, by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin, published in 2000 and now reissued in its second edition.
I like Jack Trout’s work and like many in the communications business, I love touting how my client’s offering stands apart from everyone else! To what degree is it different? Does that even matter? Does the difference have that much to do with the value proposition? Not all the time.
For a fresh view of differentiation, take a look at Matt Kurchaski’s blog Define or Differentiate? A Marketer’s Dilemma. “Too many companies ask the question “how can we be different” when they should be asking ‘what does the customer want and how can we deliver better than the other guys?’. ” Matt offers a crisp summary of a thoughtful article by Eric M. Morgenstern, APR, Fellow PRSA just published by The Counselors Academy, which is part of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The full text is available for purchase through the PRSA.
There’s a lot to think about here. It’s, well, different.
