The Power of Differentiation

To my dear readers, I sincerely apologize for the lengthy time lag between posts. With tremendous client work, extensive holiday travels and preparations, and year-end financial planning, the last month or so has been an absolutely whirlwind. I promise not to go so long in between entries the next time around. Now, on to the good stuff...

My PR colleague David Rodewald, who owns and operates a very successful tech PR firm (The David James Agency) here in Ventura County, wrote a very interesting piece last week on his blog regarding Steve Jobs and the executive's being named CEO of the Decade by Fortune. David maintains that Apple's success over the past 10 years can be attributed to "Jobs' use of disciplined messaging and communications to build the image of Apple." While I don't disagree with David, I'll go one step further. I firmly believe that Apple's resurgence in the past 10 years can be traced directly to the company's extraordinary innovation in product design and development -- and continuing to introduce radically-different, game-changing products which raise the bar for all other PC and consumer electronics manufacturers. In the end, Apple's new product offerings -- the iMac, iTunes, iPod, and, of course, the iPhone -- have always been far DIFFERENT than anything else on the market. That all of these products are elegantly designed, flawless in their operation, and ingrained now in the public consciousness and pop culture are just bonuses to the company and to end users (although also very important to sales and overall user acceptance, to be sure).

And that brings us to my main point. There is no question that Apple's PR efforts are second to none, and the company, with Jobs as the public face, creates a landslide of buzz and media coverage with each and every product announcement -- all with carefully-planned messaging which hits home with Apple fans. However, without clear differentiation, none of Apple's offerings, or any other product introduction for that matter, regardless of the type or industry, would ever resonate with consumers.


Let's boil it down: every company, product, and service requires clear differentiation to be successful. This is the set of attributes which distinguishes one offering from another, and upon which ALL purchasing decisions are based. These are also the characteristics which MUST be incorporated into any marketing program. Unfortunately, there are a ton of businesses out there that never quite figure this out, and that leaves their offerings in no man's land: where no one buys. In fact, in talking to small business owners on a regular basis, I find that many simply cannot articulate to me how their enterprise are inherently different from the competition, or how their products are better than competing offerings on the market. Are they different because of its price? Colors available? Higher performance? Longer lasting? Better features? More functionality? Never before seen? Greater expertise/experience? A combination of some or all of these? Frankly, many principals just don't know.

This a major issue. Why? Because any subsequent marketing effort will not have differentiation to emphasize and leverage. Therefore, the marketing activity just becomes a waste of money that never hits the mark with its target audience. It becomes white noise to which no one pays any attention. And that will kill a business.

So ask yourself this question: what makes my business, product, or service different than my competitors' offerings? And take some to answer honestly. Obtain feedback from peers, and then develop a list of key differentiators. After that, make sure to emphasize these points in all of your marketing and communications materials. You'll be glad you did.

In the end, without differentiation, you have nothing.