“You don’t want to be considered just the best of the best; you want to be considered the only one who does what you do.” – Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead
Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead, was a guitarist and a singer, but he could have been considered a brilliant marketer. He did not want to dwell on being the best singer, best guitarist or even having the best band. In fact, he had a Stand-Alone philosophy, which in the opinion of fans of the Grateful Dead, worked to perfection.
The Holy Grail of building a stand-alone brand is when the areas of difference between you and your competitors becomes the “Must Haves” for your customers. It is the point where the market draws a line in the sand and will not give your competitors serious consideration because you are here.
This does not happen a lot, but when it does, you as the Chief Mile Owner have to pounce on this opportunity to silence your competitors and crush any hope of gaining ground in this battle. In fact, if you are looking at competition for customers as a ground battle, this is your chance to drive the others back into the hills to run for cover and regroup.
1. Concentrate on Your Advantages…Not On The Others…
Peter Thiel, one of the Founders of PayPal and is also an early investor in Facebook, discussed the myth and ideals of competition in his book Zero To One, when he declared that “competition means no profits for anybody, no meaningful differentiation and a struggle for survival. So why do people believe that competition is healthy”? Thiel believes that the ideology of competition clouds our thinking and drags us into a trap. “The more we compete, he says, the less we gain”.
The Chief Mile Owner, however wants to put the idea of competition in the rear-view mirror and stand alone. How to build the barrier to the competition? Follow the Great Jerry Garcia and be the only one that does what you do and flawlessly execute on your advantages. Flawless and relentless execution of your advantages creates tangible barriers to competition that include high entry costs and a very difficult path for competitors; so even if the product can be matched, your people, culture or processes would be a total mystery.
2. Get Beyond the Attribute Trap
Being Stand Alone is all about that thing that folks can’t live without. It does not matter how big or small the brand or organization is. It’s that place of shared interests that becomes the magnet for your customer. To stand alone, you must have the courage and vision to not look at the common strategies your competitors or businesses in your catergory use to get folks to prefer their products or services.
How many ads have we seen or heard on that describe in great detail (at least as great as thirty seconds can afford) the great food that a restaurant has (i.e Better Ingredients, Better Pizza)? Every day if you watch television or don’t listen to satellite radio. These ads describe everything from the $5.99 Value Meal to the Real Angus Beef Burger that is the best on the planet. $15 Meal Deal; All you Can Eat, Succulent Lobster; Always Fresh, Never Frozen; Crispy Fries….Clutter, Clutter and More Clutter.
Let’s call it My Thing is Better Than Your Thingism. Feel free to insert the name of any restaurant, automobile or computer company here. With this philosophy, you are focused on building preferences among several or numerous choices being considered by your potential or existing customers. You use your limited resources to communicate how much better you are than the next company, with, by the way, the same advertising platforms your competition in using. You know this, but you are convinced that more clever advertising creative, bigger sponsorships or turning up the frequency of social media will make you more relevant…or your competition less relevant.
I can tell you that this approach rarely if ever creates sustainable results. When you use the My Thing is Better than Your Thing approach, you help create the commoditization and clutter that prevents you from standing alone.
3. Create and Sustain The Must Haves
How do you do this? Show them the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).
The WIIFM is the sweet spot, the pay off, the incremental innovation or the devil in the details. It is the small difference that makes a deal. It can be hundreds of things that can be considered Must Haves. The must haves in a stand-alone brand typically combines, emotional, self-expressive and societal benefits to Look at how this works in the other industries aside from the restaurant space…
- The cool designs of Apple products
- The perception that people have of you when you drive a Harley Davidson (which by the way, is also considered as not the best built or designed product in its category).
- Products that make it easier for folks that have adopted the Paleo lifestyle to select meals and restaurants wherever they are.
- Clean restaurants with gracious, helpful and engaged staff like you will find at Chick-fil-A
- Customer service techs that are always on time or early for appointments
- The Ameriprise Financial Advisor that checks in with you regularly to explain the changes in the market and where you should make some changes when your daughter goes off to college.
Do you see the pattern here? It would appear that most, if not all the competitors of these companies are chasing the leader. If you look a bit closer, however, you will see that the leader is not actually running away, but rather standing alone while the others are on a treadmill running in place. Don’t be caught in this scenario; find the sweet spot and grow it. Grow it by relentlessly protecting and perfecting it.
