Mission control: why are you here?

‘You can’t just go on forever floating on the tide these days,’ writes Danish marketing expert Jesper Kunde, ‘monitoring the competition and conducting surveys to find out what your customers want right now. What do you want? What so do you want to tell the world in the future? What does your company have that will enrich the world? You must believe in that. Believe so strongly enough to be unique at what you do.’

There’s more.

‘Some companies’, Mr. Kunde adds, ‘equate branding with marketing. Design sparkling new logo, run an exciting new marketing campaign, and voila – you are back on course. They are wrong. The task is bigger, much bigger. It is about the company fulfilling its potential, not about a new logo.

‘WHAT IS MY MISSION IN LIFE? WHAT DO I WANT TO CONVEY TO PEOPLE? AND HOW DO I MAKE SURE THAT WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER THE WORLD IS ACTUALLY UNIQUE? THE BRAND HAS TO GIVE OF ITSELF, THE COMPANY HAS TO GIVE OF ITSELF, AND MANAGEMENT HAS TO GIVE OF ITSELF. … TO PUT IT BLUNTLY, IT IS A MATTER OF WHETHER (OR NOT) YOU WANT TO BE UNIQUE NOW.’

I think that’s brilliant.

Branding: It’s about meaning, not marketing … about deep company logic, not fancy new logos.

THE BEST – OR BUST: HOW ARE YOU UNIQUE?

UNIQUE. There is no bigger word. None.

Unique means … SINGULAR. RIGHT? (And … PERIOD.)

‘Success,’ says Tom Chappell, founder of the personal care products company Tom’s of Maine, ‘means never letting the competition define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.’

Brilliant.

But even Tom can be upstaged. By … the man … the late Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead: ‘You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.’

And the Grateful Dead were precisely that. They changed the world. (I am a fan, by the way. Not a Deadhead, but a sympathizer … to be sure.)

If not unique … WHY BOTHER?

IT’S THE LAW: HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE?

Dough Hall is an ‘idea guru.’ The idea guru (according to a 2001 Inc. magazine cover story.) A former P&G marketer, and now overseer of Eureka Ranch, he has guided big corporation team after big corporation team to stunning new product breakthroughs. Now focused on translating those ideas to the world of small business, Dough has written a wonderful and meticulously researched book, Jump Start Your Business Brain.

At the book’s heart are three ‘laws’ of ‘marketing physics.’

Law#1: Overt Benefit. What is the product or service’s ‘One Great Thing’? (One or two ‘great things’ is far better that three or more ‘great things.’ When you get to three or more … you just confuse the consumer. A ton of hard data support the point.)

Law#2: Real Reason to Believe. Does the organization Really and Consistently Deliver that ‘One Great Thing’?

Law#3: Dramatic Difference. The Hard Data Scream: Dramatic Difference in a product or service offering makes a very Dramatic Difference in Top- and Bottom-line Success. Alas, Hall reports, damn few (Very Damn Few!) execs get it.

Consider: A few hundred consumers are asked to evaluate a potential new product or service. They confront two questions: ‘How likely are you to purchase this new product or service?’ and ‘How unique is this new product or service?’

The consumers’ responses to those questions are intriguing – but not nearly as intriguing as the way the company’s top executives then responded to the survey. Execs - no exceptions in 20 years, per Mr.Hall! – give 25% to 100% weighing to results from the ‘intent to purchase’ questions, and a 0% to 5% weighing to the ‘uniqueness’ consideration.

WHO CARES? (YOU’D BETTER CARE!)

When Bob Waterman and I penned In Search of Excellence, the received dogma of the time had reduced ‘management’ to a dry, by-the-numbers exercise. Bob and I roamed the nation, looking at companies that worked, and we saw something else. What we saw was ‘soft’, by the Harvard Business School standard. It had to do with people & engagement in work & love of quality& entrepreneurial instinct & values worth going to the mat for. The ‘surprising’ Waterman-Peters mantra: