5 Ways to Stand Out in a Sea of Sameness
How do you stand out in a sea of sameness? How do you ensure your company shines through all the noise?
Your gut instinct may be to focus on creating a truly unique brand. But is that really your goal? Is being unique always a good thing?
Today I’m diving into the difference between making sure your company stands out versus creating an outstanding brand. Because in the end it’s not about being unique. It’s about being selected as the preferred brand that will sustain your business.
Is That What You’re Really Asking? | The Goal Is to Be Selected, Not Unique
What do you mean when you ask, “How do I stand out within a sea of sameness?” What’s your goal? What need is prompting that question?
I’m assuming most of us ask this question because we want to become the selected brand. We want to make sure our target audience sees and chooses us.
But instead of focusing on how we can be selected….we end up asking how we can stand out. We look around at our competition and try to differentiate ourselves. We ask: What can we do differently to stand out and catch the eye of a potential customer?
Here's where linguistics really matter. When we ask ourselves the question, “How do I stand out?,” we start to assume the customer wants a vendor that stands out…one that’s unique. We focus all our energy on being different and distinguishing ourselves from everyone else. But does that get us where we want to be?
The Blue Ocean Strategy | But, Innovation Must Be Familiar
There's a decent book out there called The Blue Ocean Strategy which discusses the problem of how to properly distinguish yourself within a saturated market where everybody is doing the same thing. Basically, how do you stand out? Their recommendation is to create a blue ocean.
To get to that point, they go through the fish comparison: you can either be a little fish in a big pond or a big fish in a little pond. If you’re a little fish, you’ve got a lot of work ahead to fight the competition and become the preferred provider. Or you can attempt to become a big fish in a little pond by selecting a focus or geographical area where there's not nearly as much competition so you can dominate.
Instead of entering into either pond, the authors discuss creating a new pond called your “blue ocean.” A typical ocean is filled with lots of sharks…which means blood’s in water so you end up with a red ocean. The Blue Ocean strategy is not tainted by sharks (i.e. competition). Instead of trying to survive the red ocean, you simply create something completely unique and different. There’s no competition so you preserve your blue ocean.
The authors use Cirque du Soleil as a case study. They argue Cirque du Soleil created a completely new type of circus (novel entertainment, new styles) so they had no competition in their sphere.
But if you actually take a deep look at Cirque du Soleil, you’ll see there's still a strong circus influence. It's a circus with a twist. It's kind of like iced tea, but now it's got a lemon in it. It's still being performed live in a circus-type atmosphere…but maybe it’s in an auditorium instead of a tent. It’s still a traveling show. You still see varied performances with trapeze artists, body contortionists, and strange feats…but it’s a bit more refined. At the end of the day, it’s live, theatrical, circus-esque entertainment.
So if you actually look at the process and model for Cirque du Soleil…is it truly that unique? To me, the answer is: no. It's familiar enough for me to understand it quickly. I don't have to work that hard to figure out what it is, how to engage with it, and how it will add value to my life. I just buy tickets, show up, and enjoy the show.
It’s “different,” but it's not that radically different at its base core.
Design Thinking Debacle | Striving to Be Unique Kills Your Business
About five years ago, I was working out of a start-up co-working space and decided to do a strategy trade session with another business there. Basically, we were getting free consulting from each other. We interviewed the other company to help them establish their brand and create their brand story.
The owners described their business as “a design thinking firm.” Honestly, I still don’t quite know what that means today, but most people were completely clueless five years ago. (I believe it has something to do with the lean approach to thinking through a problem and crafting a solution that is a human centered solution and using design...and UI/UX…?). Anyway…
At the time of the interview, we asked them, “What is design thinking?” They tried to explain it, but we became more confused. And then it happened. We told them what they didn't want to hear: “You need to change how you describe yourself because no one knows what design thinking is…it doesn't make any sense.” Their faces dropped from excited…to thoughtful…to complete walls up. They didn’t like what we had to say. And just like that, the meeting was over as well as our partnership. Within a year, they left our co-working space and ultimately closed up shop.
The problem they faced was “pursuing uniqueness.” Their drive and fascination with uniqueness ultimately put them out of business. They believed that being different from all these other firms because they were a “design thinking firm” was enough to bring in the customers.
The threat of chasing uniqueness is that while you can succeed as being unique, it may be at the cost of remaining relevant to your customer. The way you look and describe yourself can be so far out there that the customer seriously has no idea what you do – they don't even know if you can solve their problem. They don't even understand they have the problem you solve. And if they did, they’d have no idea how to find you.
Let’s take a look at McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's. What is radically unique about those three restaurants? They've got the same color palettes and chunky typefaces. Same store shape. Extremely similar menus. When I pull off the road at an exit, I’m going to whichever one seems like the quickest option.
Another great example: Home Depot and Lowe's. These top brands are essentially the same store. They even have the same layout — garden on the right and lumber on the left. The only difference: one is orange and the other is blue. And no one cares. No one is complaining: “Oh man, I'm lost in this sea of sameness with Home Depot and Lowe's! How am I going to decide?” You're just going to go to the one that's closest to you to get your supplies.
If you’ve been trying to stand out in the sea of sameness, I’m not trying to make fun of you or belittle your quest. I'm trying to help you break down why you have this concern. Are you projecting your own insecurities onto your company? Do you feel unfounded pressure to be unique? I want to help take that pressure away because that’s not what your customer is concerned about.
What are they looking for?
Outstanding organizations.
They aren’t thinking: “Does this company stand out and catch my eye?”
They’re wondering: “Is this company outstanding?”
What's going to catch their eye first is familiarity. They're trying to remove risk. They want to find someone who will sweep them off their feet and treat them well. That's the type of investment they want to make.
What Customers Care About | How to Buy a Mattress
Let's just say I need a mattress. I'm probably going to start my search by googling “mattress” and any pertinent keywords. I’ll do some research and figure out what type of mattress I want. After that, I’ll look for mattress stores on Google Maps and see which ones are closest. (Now this example uses a commodity. Perhaps you are more of a specialist, but just hang with me here.)
For the mattress, I'm trying to find something that is obvious within that moment. Once I find the mattress stores near me, I’m faced with new questions: Are they going to take good care of me? What reviews do they have? Do they look legit? Are they professional? I’m gathering all these impressions from how their website looks, pictures of the interior, the amount of reviews they have, what customers are saying about them, and the price points that they have – that’s what’s informing my decision about selecting that business.
I’m not trying to go on a weird safari online to find a boutique mattress store. No, I want to figure out the solution to my question immediately. That's what a customer is concerned about.
So while business owners and creatives get concerned about uniqueness, the customer is concerned about obvious, outstanding businesses.
So honestly, we don't want to become unique. What we need to become is familiar. Recognizable. We need to communicate assurance because the customer's decision is about removing risk. It’s our job to remove their concerns and solve their problems.
We can’t do that by making it really complicated for customers to find us or to understand what we do. Instead, be easy to find. Use simple, easily understandable phrases to explain what you do. Then, become outstanding at what you provide.
5 Ways to Be Outstanding | Becoming the Preferred Brand
So back to my original question: How do we actually stand out within a sea of sameness?
Well, first off, we don't use that question. We stop using this question of: “How do we stand out within a sea of sameness?” Our question now becomes: “How do we become the preferred partner and the preferred brand for this potential customer?”
Tip 1: Choose the smallest viable audience
Seth Godin talks a lot about the minimum viable audience which is similar to the idea of the minimum viable product. But you just think about it for your audience, instead of a product.
This is a way of thinking through niching down (the riches are in the niches, right?). You identify the smallest group of people that can support your business financially.
After identifying your target audience, you want to create the most outstanding product or service for that specific customer. You become a student of them. You devote everything to making their lives better and to making your company the obvious choice for them.
How do you do that?
First off, change your perspective. Instead of focusing on being different or growing your brand (or whatever else), literally devote yourself to understanding your customer. It's going to make all the other tactical decisions very obvious because you’ll be acting out of devotion to your customer. Since you're really genuinely concerned about their problems, you’ll make the right decisions about your brand to become the outstanding choice. They’ll have an awesome experience and they will come back.
Part of brand storytelling isn't telling stories about your company – it’s the stories your customers are going to tell about your brand after experiencing your company. Part of that comes from amazing customer service, so here's Tip 2….
Tip 2: Amazing Customer Service and/or Results
Provide either amazing, incredible customer service or amazing, incredible results.
People are willing to tolerate “jerkish” behavior so long as the results are astronomical. For example, the venue where my wife and I got married had much to be desired in the customer service department leading up to the wedding. But when the wedding day arrived, we had a beautiful celebration, amazing food, and an experience so great that our friends still talk about it. Because the result was so phenomenal, we were willing to overlook the subpar customer service. (Definitely not telling you to be a jerk — just commenting on how the world works).
In contrast, you can also stand out with remarkable customer service. Think about a dining experience. What sets it apart? Great food is a start, but the quality of the waitstaff makes or breaks the experience. What about healthcare? My active toddler required stitches this past summer. While we were braced for a negative experience (who hasn’t waited around endlessly at urgent care? ), we were greeted with prompt service and treated by a personable staff. They even called in the owner (who had the best suturing skills), to come in on a Sunday to help my little boy. That’s something I won’t forget.
So either focus on improving your results (the effectiveness of your product or service) or your customer service at every single customer touchpoint (or both if you have bandwidth). Wow them. Become an expert at your craft or an expert at treating people well.
Tip 3: Direct response marketing
Yes, the brand storyteller just told you to use direct response marketing.
If you are confused, please go back and watch the episode on When to Tell Your Brand Story and and pay attention to the Five Levels of of Brand Development. Level One = Your brand is what you do. The story you focus on is explaining the product or service that you're offering.
Level One is all about growing brand awareness, and part of that is getting customers. To get customers, you need to be obvious. People need to look at your brand and immediately know what you do and whether it’s for them.
The people who have figured out being obvious are direct response people. There's a lot we can learn from them.
That doesn’t mean it comes at the detriment of your integrity or the level of professionalism that your image is communicating. We tend to associate the idea of direct response with tackiness and may turn up our nose…but these guys are brilliant. They know how to immediately resonate with someone and form a connection that elicits a response.
What do I mean by direct response tactics? I’m specifically talking about improving your copywriting — the words you use. Get better at crafting your value proposition, the copy on your website, and the words in your social media posts. Get good at stripping away all of this drive to be unique and get as obvious as possible. So that way when someone reads it, they know this is for me. They understand exactly what you do and they want it. They aren’t confused. They get it.
Tip 4: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Lean into SEO. You want to show up first and be selected. In order to do that, optimize your brand to be searchable online.
Within your sphere, identify core keywords that your customer base uses along their buying journey. What are they concerned about? What are they going to search for?
In order to answer that, you may need to go back and study your customer. As you do that, you're going to start understanding the words they use and how they search. Better yet, ask them. Can they remember how they found you? What did they search for? Start keeping notes so you improve your searchability.
You can use websites like Answer the Public, Uber Suggest, Google Trends, and the Google search box. For example, start typing a word in Google and you’ll see many combinations of popular search suggestions pop up.
You can do a lot of this without spending any money or hiring a professional SEO firm. Use those above sites to understand what people are searching for, then create evergreen SEO content that drives traffic to your site.
Tip 5: Focus on looking professional
Don't focus on how you stylistically make yourself unique. Focus on looking as professional as possible. Avoid things like: a logo that looks like it was created from clip art, social media designs that makes your brand look cheap, and not updating a website that look like it’s from the 90’s. You get the idea.
Start doing things that build up your brand image. Use templates to ensure brand cohesion. Get them made professionally if you need to. Thoughtfully evaluate your brand and ask: Does this instill professionalism? Am I putting my best foot forward in all my brand materials?
Conclusion
So the next time you hear “How do you stand out in a sea of sameness?” and you feel that pressure to follow it — don’t. Ignore it. Know that it’s just going to lead you down the road of irrelevance…and your job is to make your brand the relevant, obvious choice for your customers.