Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd

By Youngme Moon

Favorite Quotes

Captured By Josh Duncanwww.arandomjog.com

People, real people, view the world more organically.

They are idiosyncratic.

They are unpredictable. They are beautifully disorganized.

In business, just as in life, sometimes the most illuminating insights can emerge from the throwaways

People want to feel fascinated by a 

product or experience, and will pay more—often far 

more—for a brand that fascinates them.

The problem with asking

consumers what they

want is that not only will

they ask for things they’re

not getting, but their

requests will usually be

driven by what they see

being offered by the

competition

If aliens were to visit a grocery store or a

drugstore in this country, they would have to

conclude that we are a people hooked on the

pleasures of picking needles out of haystacks

If you’re looking for a unique solution, the last thing you should

do is ask for a vote

The minute we choose to measure something, we are

essentially choosing to aspire to it. A metric, in other

words, creates a pointer in a particular direction. And

once the pointer is created, it is only a matter of time

before competitors herd in the direction of that pointer.

What this means is that these are categories in which companies are literally running to

stand still.

There comes a point beyond which we

are hard to impress. There comes a point beyond which additional

improvement ceases to add value.

The product marketers who work in these companies have become

masters at the dual arts of repetitive augmentation and competitive

cloning.

The paradox of progress is that it makes things better, until it

makes things worse

The objective is to not blend into the blur; the

objective is to stand out from it.

This is what it means to be

DIFFERENT.

This is the problem with shifts: They tend to happen in real time, which means that there are going to be moments of ambiguity when remnants 

of the old truth still hold together, even as remnants of it are falling apart.

If you’re a brand manager, this is

precisely what you want—people who

not only love your brand but feel that

it’s the only brand able to deliver what

they’re looking for.

Restraint can be the new desire. A whisper can be the new shout.

Differentiation is a way of thinking.

It’s a mindset. A commitment to engage with people.

Photo Credits• Graffiti - http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterpete/3016913303/sizes/l/

• Milk Crate -http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugley/2997879253/sizes/o/

• Bike - http://www.flickr.com/photos/twotone666/1433090066/sizes/o/

• Vote -http://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/4462502498/sizes/o/in/photostream/

• Hamster - http://www.flickr.com/photos/artbandito/2074456252/sizes/o/

• Shopping -http://www.flickr.com/photos/suvcougar/883890246/sizes/o/in/photostream/

• Bakery -http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesyu/13042995/sizes/o/in/photostream/

• Whisper -http://www.flickr.com/photos/eulothg/4829009536/sizes/l/in/photostream/