Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

Differentiation has always been the name of the marketing game. Companies want to make their products unique, not just commodities. But it’s the market that determines whether a product is a commodity, not a company. So what can companies do to set themselves apart?

They can either rise above the playing field, and differentiate themselves through customer relationship management, product innovation, or infrastructure management; or they can level the playing field by annihilating the points of differentiation of every other company, and increase their own addressable market size.

Sound impossible? Google did it. Read their case study here.

I’m interested in learning about the products, sites or campaigns that YOU feel have done a good job of differentiating themselves, so please feel free to share them in the comments section.

I will get the ball rolling with Dove’s campaign for Real Beauty. More then just breaking down barriers and redefining stereotypes, Dove has cleverly dominated a section of the market that had been previously untapped. If (lets say) 90% of women are drawn to “aspirational” beauty campaigns featuring models and mannequins, then that leaves 10% who are looking for something that hits closer to home. So Dove figures they’ll let every other soap brand fight for a share in the 90%, and they can dominate the 10%! Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty associated the brand with a set of values that popularised them around them world. They differentiated their commodity and made waves in doing so. Way to go Dove!