Book Report: "Different: Escaping The Competitive Herd"
‘Once everyone starts doing it, no one stands out’ (pg. 33). This is the most impacting phrase that captured my attention while reading the book. It is difficult to think differently while living in a world where everything develops so quickly. That extraordinary idea you have in your mind this moment, somebody else probably has already thought about it as well. ‘Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd’ written by Youngme Moon was first published in 2010. She began to write this book as she conducted a research on brands such as IKEA and Google, where she spotted the uniqueness of its strategies and found out the secret to its success.
In the first part of the book, Moon points out the problems that we face with once we begin doing the exactly same things others are doing. Years ago, different companies selling similar products used to have its strengths and weaknesses. For example, Jeep was praised for its ruggedness while Nissan was more advanced in terms of safety. It was much more easier for customers back then to choose from those categories. What Moon suggests marketing managers to do is to focus on the strengths. It is more efficient to improve the strength that the brand already encompasses rather than focusing on the weakness just so they can feel like they are ‘keeping up’ with the other competitors. Moon introduces two types of augmentation strategies: Augmentation by addition and augmentation by multiplication (pg. 54). We can easily notice how products are frequently being upgraded. It adds even more features, appealing to new customers. Also, companies realize how everyone has a different taste on everything and begins offering countless options to choose from to attract customers who originally showed no interest. However, augmentation has limits because at one point, consumers will begin to feel that it is simply too much and ridiculous. It is interesting how Moon divided consumer behaviors into five different categories (pg. 87). First comes the Connoisseurs, which are the experts when it comes to the category of their interest but are brand-agnostic. Savvy opportunists are also experts, but do not have interest in the category unlike the connoisseurs.
Pragmatics don’t catch the differences between brands and therefore, are indifferent. Reluctants prefer not to deal with the category if they didn’t have to and lastly Brand loyalists are those who stubbornly holds on to that specific brand no matter what. Following Moon’s classification, I would consider myself a connoisseur when it comes to cosmetics, a savvy opportunist when it comes to airline tickets, a pragmatic when it comes to electronic devices, reluctant when it comes to alcohol beverages, and a brand loyalist when it comes to clothing. The second part of the book illustrates the three different strategies companies should apply to their products in order to set themselves apart from the rest. The first is the Reverse-positioned brand (pg. 110). It is obvious that nowadays people are overwhelmed with endless choices that they need to make in order to get to the product. Reverse-positioned brands believe keeping things simple is the way to go. The examples Moon presents are the search engines Yahoo! and Google. Yahoo! started out as a simple search engine but as its competitors began catching up, they started to add different features such as weather, stock information, and daily news.
The website soon became packed with elements that users were uninterested in. Then Google showed up, eliminated all those intimidating features and kept the website as simple as possible providing with one search engine only. Surprisingly, Google began gaining popularity at a very fast rate. What I noticed is that people often believe having more is the best option when actually it is not. Next Moon talked about the Breakaway position brands (pg. 128). This helps consumers draw a different archetype of a product; one that is completely different to the original. It is about letting go the obvious meaning of the product and bringing in a new perspective. Lastly, Hostile Brands (pg. 153) are those that are interested in gathering only a small number of admirers. They are unresponsive to consumers needs and do not waste time in trying to make everyone fall in love with the product. Lastly, Moon claims there are two types of difference: one that says nothing and one that speaks. True difference is unique, and is not necessarily big or eye-catching. Those who try to take the easy path to difference will realize at the end of the road that, there will be many more standing by their sides. They will notice they were not that different after all.
The purpose of Reverse positioning is to take away what consumers expect, with some exciting features to stimulate growth. This strategy gets rid of features that other competitors think of as an advantage. One example I thought of is Mingle. Mingle is a shampoo brand which is uniquely made for individual customers. There are way too many types of shampoo brands, all which contains way too much chemical ingredients. It almost gives me a heachache when having to shop for a shampoo that fits my hair type. Honestly, until this day, I have not been able to find a product that satisfies me. With Mingle, customers only needs to answer seven simple questions regarding hair type and its needs, and Mingle will bring a customized shampoo made just for them and only them. Mingle emphasizes that their product is not only a shampoo, but a new experience. The packaging is simple, and it engraves the name of the customer on it to show that they take pride in what they make. Breakaway positioning is alienating itself from the original meaning.
One example I thought of is Shake Shack Burgers. Usually, when eating a hamburger, people prefer to have soda such as Coke or Fanta for refreshing. However when Shake Shack entered the marketplace everyone was shocked. Their main menu served hamburger with milk shakes. Another example is Yellow Tail Wine. It takes away the idea that wines have to be expensive and picky to choose from or only for special occasions. Therefore Yellow Tail Wine made its goal to come up with wines that taste good and make it easily accessible to a broader range of consumers. Just as Moon suggests, “I know you’re inclined to think of this as a slice of swiss cheese, but what if you were to think of it as a flying carpet instead?”, we shouldn’t make stereotypes keep us from trying out products because we never know if we will end up liking it or not without tying. Therefore, we should not necessarily think of wine products to be classy and serious all the time; and Yellow Tail Wine does a great job in making it fun and for everyday occasions. Lastly, Hostile Brands are those that do not try to please everyone. I don’t think there is a lot of hostile brands in Korea, since it is in our nature to think of customers as kings.
However, I would say that little by little, the marketplace is starting to shift its direction. An example I thought of are the luxurious, very expensive brands such as Gucci and Burberry which targets only those who can afford them. Although the customers are not large in number, what keeps the brand going is their loyalty towards the brand which is exactly what hostile brands look into. Another example would be Whole Foods, which is an organic brand that is not easy to be favored by a large number of people. Based on some research I also found out that Domino Pizza carried out a ‘No’ campaign where the company refused to add or remove toppings of a pizza, hoping for the customers to embrace and notice the effort they put into their product.
Although this method is quite risky to apply, it is Moon’s hope that more brands will apply this strategy since it does its job of distinguishing the product and stand in the blur, becoming the idea brand that Moon keeps stressing. The increasing number of Uber uses also indicates that although it is skeptical for some people, those who compromises with the guidelines of Uber are still willing to use their service. I feel like Moon oversaw the future very accurately. It was only 2010 when she published the book but the claims she mentioned are well applicable to today’s marketing environment as well. The first claim she made was that all companies have the tendency to chase after one another. It is like they are blinded by the other competitors and do not see things straightforward. The second claim she made was that a company should be able to become an idea brand. Competition will continue to intensify and no matter how hard you try to keep up with the rest, it will not last long unless you come up with something that sets your brand apart.
As Moon mentioned in the first chapter, it is important to not have your competitors too close or too far away from you. Lastly, Moon stresses the idea of differentiation being a way of thinking, rather than a tactic (pg. 225). She claims that we should concentrate on the reasons for why we do the things we do instead of simply doing more. She insists that the generation where we easily get along by doing more has come to an end. An example I can think of are the beauty products of Yurica. The brand started off with the famous face shield, which is a product that protects and keeps the makeup from fading away. It then extended its product line with the lip shield, hair shield, and eye shield.
What makes this brand different to others is the fact that they stood in the consumers’ shoes. They were determined to find out what people struggled with the most everyday, and eventually came up with products that would provide them with solutions. They thought of something no other brand did, and it was a success. Now it is a matter of how well they survive in the marketplace once other competitors start coming up with similar ideas. In conclusion, I think difference occurs when there is a good balance between sameness and change. Staying in a comfort zone for too long is not a good idea, but neither is going through too much change all at once. There is nothing difficult about becoming different. We simply must look for it. Also, when we decide to do things differently, we must think about its purpose and meaning. It is when we succeed in properly delivering the thoroughly shaped meaning to the customers that we can confidently say we are making a difference.
