A lot of marketers talk about differentiation – standing out from the competition by offering unique products or services with a big wow factor. That sounds good but the reality is that most products are pretty much the same once you get past the marketing spin.
Those of you who have worked in the sales trenches know that marketers make a big deal over features and benefits that often don’t resonate with customers. You’re in a catch-22 situation. If you report back candidly to head office, you’re labeled a loser or a negatron. If you stick to the party line, you have trouble explaining why the orders aren’t rolling in. So you just do your best, try to stay under the radar when sales forecasts are missed, and let someone else take the first bullet.
Why are your products so similar to your competitor’s? Here are five reasons:
Copycat Syndrome — Everyone loves to copy a winner. The current buzzwords are benchmarking and best in class, What it means, in short, is you pick a successful product or company to emulate. This leads to a numbing sameness in the market.
Market Research — In an effort to be customer-focused, many marketers rely too much on market research. The danger is that customers will rarely describe a breakthrough product because they don’t know they need it yet. Think for a moment about the minivan, the multi-colored iMac computer, and the Palm Pilot. I doubt that anyone ever articulated a need for these products, but once they were introduced everyone had to buy one. Great products capture needs we didn’t know we had.
Risk Aversion — Most companies and managers are risk averse. Do you seriously want to risk losing your beautiful house, your BMW, and your trophy wife on a funky new product that looks nothing like the other guy’s? No, you’d rather benchmark brand x, shoot for an incremental advantage and pressure the hell out of your reps to outsell the competition.
Cost Management Mania — The dominant management paradigm of the past decade has been cost management. It goes by fancier names such as re-engineering, re-organization, and outsourcing. It’s ultimately safer for managers to focus on reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Betting on the come—the sales line, is much riskier. The trouble is that without growth, cost-cutting ultimately becomes a race to the bottom. Example – the entire airline industry with the exception of Southwest.
Design Myopia — Some companies understand the role of good design. Most do not. The preferred degree for marketing managers is always an MBA. What would happen if companies hired a few MFA’s for a change? Maybe products would look a lot more interesting. Note to reader: if you don’t know what MFA stands for, you’re part of the problem and not the solution.
It takes real courage to bet on product innovation. Truthfully, the odds for success are not that great. Customers are fickle, markets can be tough, and competitors can be difficult to dislodge. I’m not suggesting you bet your entire future on one roll of the new product dice. What it takes is a strategic commitment to innovation, the courage to follow your instincts, and the vision to hire creative people who don’t fit the standard profile.
The rewards can be great. You might not end up as a market leader in terms of size and share but you will end up with loyal customers who ensure your survival. That’s saying a lot these days. Take a look at innovators like Southwest Airlines and Apple Computer. Now take a look at TWA and Compaq. Oh, sorry, they don’t exist anymore. What’s the takeaway? Differentiate or die.
