Be Spectacularly Different

“To succeed in a spectacular fashion, you have to be spectacularly different.”

– Warren Buffett

There are two incredibly successful companies in America that broke through the noise of all the advertising and ‘big-manufacturers’ in the last few years…and they make – wait for it…SOCKS!

LittleMisMatched sells colorful and unique kids socks in “pairs” of 3.  Brilliant!  Fun!  Parents are the only people who get frustrated when kids have on two different socks, or when one mysteriously gets eaten by the dryer. No longer an issue!

Bombas Socks took a different approach – the buy one, give one. They donate a needed clothing item (socks, underwear, and t-shirts) with every purchase and let all their customers know it!  It is their primary messaging in all advertising and promotions. Again, brilliant. Meaningful. Needed.

These two companies found a way to stand out, to be spectacularly different in how they not only market their company but how they built it from the ground up.

Unfortunately, in today’s world most businesses are white-washed and look the same. They often try to appeal to ALL people instead of just those that are a good fit. They try to avoid displeasing anyone and in their efforts they often please no one.

I am not talking about finding a niche but rather breaking out to showcase what makes you and your company unique, special, even odd.  The way you do things, the market you seek, the things you sell – what about any of them is special? Un-common? Exceptional? Unusual?

What is your “extra”? What do you do that is Above & Beyond, that is different than your competitors?

We tend to want to ‘stay the proven course’, do what has been done and shown to be successful, which results in using the same standards that were in place for our industry decades ago. But what if we embraced a new way, a different outlook on the deliverables or how we deliver them?

What if we set new standards by which to measure ourselves and our businesses?

What if we showcased our weird ideas and flamboyantly declared that we are doing things differently?

Marketing especially has become same-ole, same ole.

Someone has success with a tactic, they create a course to show others how they did it, then you have a bunch of people doing the exact same thing! Really?!?

If you try to succeed like the next guy – you end up looking like the next guy, and the guy after that. So just stop.

When we work with our clients on product development or marketing the first thing we do is a competitive scan. Then we take a close look at how can we do it all differently? Not just rinse and repeat what everyone else is doing.

There are three distinct areas to concentrate your differentiation efforts on:

1. What you do
2. How you do it
3. How you talk about it

Set aside some time as this new year begins and take a close look at those three areas of your business and determine how you can set yourself apart, how you can increase the “extra”, how you can go Above & Beyond, and how you can tell the world about it (or at least the right target market).

Take each of those and be creative, brainstorm ideas on how you can think and do things differently. Talk to other NBG Members and gain some feedback. Create a poll or survey and ask members to take it to help you evaluate where you have opportunities for improvement.

Bring those to your next HUDDLE or Strategic Collaborative and have others brainstorm with you, get creative and innovative. Let them shower you with ideas, some crazy, some not, and then take that feedback and craft your new what, how and messaging around it.

Normal, average, and the same are ordinary – you want to be extraordinary, memorable, and visible.

It takes courage to break out of the mold, to do things differently, to stand out and take the lead in your industry. But you can do it and we are here to help!