I’m a nice person. When it rains, I pick worms up off the pavement so they don’t get squashed. I pop them somewhere safe, where they won’t drown either. See. Nice.
So when I’m working as a Brand Director and I ask someone I’m helping why they want me to help them to be famous for what everybody else is famous for, I’m not being rude. I’m basically asking why on earth they, you, or indeed anyone would want to spend a penny of marketing budget on marketing the entire category within which you trade, including your competition, as opposed to communicating the unique and owned reason why people should choose you over everybody else.
I’m saying that, before you’ve got something unique and owned to say, no matter how compellingly you say it, you’re still marketing you and everybody like you until you do. So don’t spend a penny on communicating. Don’t market at all. Do nothing.
And at that point, the client either sacks me and cracks on. Or we get to work. We get to work turning a same-thinking, marketing budget-gobbling clone – into a brand.