Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd

Different by Youngme Moon is a personal essay about why brand and product management needs to evolve. Different examines the strategies companies use to improve their value proposition, customer relationship, and customer segmentation. The traditional response to competition is create incremental better products. According to Youngeme, the challenge for companies looking for a lasting advantage is to create a product different in a meaningful ways.

Product Augmentation

Typical product development occurs by two types of product augmentation (incremental improvements).

1. augmentation by addition – adding incremental improvements
2. augmentation by multiplication – increasing number of varieties to appeal smaller sections of target customers.


Types of Product Augmentation

Homogeneous Heterogeneous

Traditional production development strategies and competition led to “homogeneous heterogeneous” products; products with difference so small they are inconsequential. Homogeneous product categories are the result of measuring and categorizing comparative differences. Measurement and categorization changes the behavior of the thing being measured.

Once you put comparative differences on paper folks focus on eliminating differences rather than accentuating them.

Customer Loyalty

Never before has customer loyalty been so powerful (social media).

Consumption has become the identity cloak of our generation.

At the same time, customer loyalty has never been so difficult to establish. Consumers have a deeper connection with a few brands, but have reduced the number of brands they are loyal to. The similarity between brands reduces the reasons to be loyal.

Methods for beating the competitive herd.

1. Reverse positioned brands. These brands reserve the typical progression of product benefits. They strip away some benefits and extenuate others. (example: Ikea – disposable, assembly required furniture)
2. Breakaway brand. Breakaway brands provide an alternative frame of reference. Recognizing that customers’ classifications are superficial, breakaway brands classify themselves in a category where they are different. (example: It is not TV it is HBO)
3. Hostile Brand. Hostile brands challenge the consumer to overcome a negative. Signals the brand is not for everyone.

Brands of the future

If brand management evolved to deliver homogeneous brands, how will brand management evolve to break through the homogeneous.

1. Scarcity always increases value. What is scarce now is now restraint, quiet, and calm.
2. Committed to being different in a big way.
3. Human and empathetic.