It was at this point that that the scholars at Ehrenberg-Bass made a vital and ultimately discipline-shredding intervention. This is patent nonsense but is, trust me, an increasingly common claim among evidence-based marketers. In recent years the question of whether differentiation is even possible, never mind how to achieve it, is rarely far from the surface among evidence-based marketers. READ MORE: Mark Ritson – a true brand purpose doesn’t boost profit, it sacrifices it. So, let’s tell the story in three very discrete chapters. In it, Mark argues that distinctiveness is perfectly compatible with differentiation and that we are doing ourselves a disservice by creating an artificial dichotomy. In Sharp’s famed book ‘How Brands Grow’ he acknowledges differentiation must exist because brands have different names and elicit different thoughts like “is the red one” or “has my size available”. Are you ready? Interestingly, these eleven brands epitomise packaging distinctiveness through a range of different features: bottle shape, colour and embellishment, cap design (most notably in the case of Don Julio and Nikka), brandmarque, wordmarque, colour palette, topography and overall aesthetic; not to mention liquid colour in the case of Campari. But as Mark Ritson points out, it’s the long-term legwork of being rigidly consistent that puts a brand in the driving seat on distinctiveness. Led by the dark lord of penetration himself, Professor Byron Sharp, Ehrenberg-Bass began to challenge the power of differentiation. But it’s clear that brands really can have their cake and eat it too. When a brand is distinctive it looks like itself and “jumps out” at the consumer when they encounter it or consider a purchase. It is important, and it covers audiovisual cues and slogans, but can also be weaker ones like tone of voice, points of view etc. In my experience different brands might have various proprietary ways of measuring CEPs, but ultimately these studies quickly lead you to realize that most brands are not that different from one another, and that most differences are either overblown or more easily attributed to intrinsic attributes than extrinsic ones. But there was a snag. When one says distinctiveness is a lot more critical than being different, it means that the set of associations doesn't require to be hugely different from the category's norm or your main competitors'. How important distinctiveness is was also brought home to me recently when I was looking at a recent graphic published by The Gin Cooperative entitled 2019:Scottish Gin in Numbers. For a number of years now I’ve enjoyed reading Mark Ritson’s column in Marketing Week and taken time out to watch some of his talks online. Roach’s latest theme is ‘The stupidity of sameness and the value of difference’. Looking historically at the individual brand’s packaging what strikes you is another all-important factor in distinctiveness - consistency. Introducing the Mark Ritson WFH Marketing Bootcamp. When Tide owned the Super Bowl this year, they actually did something that goes against the principles of differentiation: they took very elementary codes of communications and their category - humour and "clean". Just remember that the latter are (much) weaker both mentally and legally when it comes to ownability. Ritson has worked globally as a private marketing consultant for esteemed clients like Baxter, Loewe, McKinsey, PepsiCo, … Well not anymore. Marketers think their brands [stand out] because they work there every day and think ****, it’s everywhere’. By the start of the 1970s Al Ries and Jack Trout had revolutionised branding with their concept of positioning. Volvo positioned on safety, FedEx positioned itself around ‘overnight’. After all, aren’t we all determined to differentiate? This week on the “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talks with Mark Ritson, adjunct professor of marketing at the Melbourne Business School, who also runs the Mini MBA in marketing program in collaboration with Marketing Week, and writes for Marketing Week as well. They stood for things that other brands did not. His Effie video case studies are a great resource. In his recent IPA talk, Mark Ritson took aim at Byron Sharp's view that distinctiveness is more important than differentiation. I have pushed these brands to work on a tight brand position to articulate how they want to differentiate themselves in the market and a set of codes through which they could make their brand distinctive. And it’s only when you’ve put in this legwork that you’re able to play with your distinctiveness and use it as a creative asset. ... Distinctiveness? When a brand is differentiated it successfully convinces consumers that its offer is significantly different to those of the competition on a range of intended associations or attributes. Whether he likes it or not, "differentiation" is by nature a concept where a brand tries to occupy a unique position in a consumer's mind, and market. So what's up with Sharp? The perceptual map never reveals a special place where only one brand can covet a particular association. “Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage,” he would regularly tell his MBA students. The prototypical USP was M&M’s, which who used a patented sugar coating to justify the claim that its chocolate “melts in your mouth, not in your hand”. I’ve spent my career, at least the past 20 years, working with very big brands on brand positioning. They make you feel great but do nothing for anyone else except make a mess. They went further and posited that rather than differentiated image being the driving force behind the success or failure of a brand, it was distinctiveness that was the real driver. It also reveals that there are now 400 Scottish Gins available. According to Ries and Trout a brand won when it owned the most important potential benefit in the mind of the prospect. And it’s clear that the Scottish market is not unique given the plethora of Gins worldwide; neither is the Gin category. But beyond the fact Mark seems obsessed with beating the shit out of Byron Sharp, are their views really that opposed? Tom Roach and his team of effectiveness monkeys have been at it again at BBH London. My biggest hero was Harvard’s Ted Levitt and he was of similar mind when it came to brand strategy.
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While I am convinced they have gone too far in belittling differentiation to promote the power of distinctiveness, the power of distinctiveness cannot be denied. But in order for this dual approach to work there needs to be a huge amount of realism when it comes to what differentiation actually means. But it was really Rosser Reeves, from the Ted Bates agency, that got the ball rolling in the early 1960s with the unique selling proposition. Marketers continue to confuse these two terms but, in essence, the two concepts are simple to separate. Private Residence: Modern Craft Exemplified →, Private Residence: Modern Craft Exemplified, Giles Calver: Some Requirements Never Change. Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp should hug it out on distinctiveness vs differentiation Published on December 12, 2018 December 12, 2018 • 108 Likes • 21 Comments Shann Biglione Follow Effie Worldwide partnered with Mark Ritson, Adjunct Professor, Writer, and teacher of the online course “Mini MBA in Marketing,” and the team at Linkedin Marketing Solutions for a 10-part series featuring key learnings and lessons from Gold Effie-winning case studies. Recommended reading: Apple in the new era and building resilience, How to Design an SEO Quiz for Your Prospective SEO Manager, 10 Basic SEO Tips to Index + Rank New Content Faster — Best of Whiteboard Friday. And at the heart of this new approach was the search for a single attribute or association that a brand could own in the mind of the target consumer. Yet the evidence shows that despite their best efforts, this is what most brands end up being. For a number of years now I’ve enjoyed reading Mark Ritson’s column in Marketing Week and taken time out to watch some of his talks online. The report is a survey of bars, selected from 38 countries around the world, who are asked to “open up their spreadsheets and divulge their bars’ buying habits”. They differentiated themselves in the market and were triumphant as a result. Events Home 2020 Events Calendar Upcoming Events Brand Insider Summit D2C July 28 - 29, 2020, Virtual Marketing: Automotive August 11 - 12, 2020, Virtual Marketing Week columnist and marketing professor Mark Ritson believes salience is the biggest part of a marketer’s job, but that most “don’t get it” and are, if anything, underplaying their distinctiveness and brand codes. But there is a current fashion among brand managers and account planners to focus on distinctiveness above all else and conclude that differentiation is an ancient myth. And if market orientation has taught me anything, it is that for the most part the important associations are the ones that are connected to the category's, not the fluffy ones like the societal purpose of the brand. But a brand can differentiate itself by being more of one thing than its competitors. The graphic reveals amongst other things that last year there were 132 new gins (up 16% on the previous year) and 25 new brands. “The Lessons Differentiation and distinctiveness … By putting their empirical fingers on the scales and re-weighting the value of awareness and the power of salience Ehrenberg-Bass has changed branding theory forever. Distinctiveness Illustrated and Rewarded? Every now and again they sit down and stitch together a bunch of separate slides, charts and other marketing ephemera to create a pithy but powerful statement on key topics in advertising and marketing.
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