If it were easy everyone would differentiate. I was talking to one of my favorite clients recently and she said “We created a logo ten years ago and we used blue and green as our colors.  This was something very unusual in our profession.  Today, everyone of our competitors have adopted blue and green as their logo colors.”  When you differentiate others will follow and imitate.  That’s when you know that you are the leader.

If you can’t be first, be different.

Entertainers, especially musicians have gone to great lengths to differentiate themselves. Vince Furnier first went on stage in in a talent show in Cortez High School in Phoenix with some buddies from the cross-country team wearing Beatle’s wigs.  Their act was well received and convinced the group to cut a record.  They called themselves the Spiders.  They dressed in all black and their stage background was a giant spider web.  According to Furnier they “didn’t just show up and stand up on stage, they appeared on stage.”

Their entrance differentiated them and that became the key to the band’s success.  They got a gig in LA and decided they needed a name change.  Vince Furnier felt they needed a dramatic change not something like the Black Widows.   He wanted to go to the extreme and suggested they go for something that sounded like an old lady. Thus was born Alice Cooper.

The more extreme and confusing the name and image became the more gigs the band received.  “Alice Cooper” began appearing in black leather pants and a slip with stage blood on it.

The audience was confused.  But they kept coming.  After two failed albums the band connected with Bob Ezrin who revised the music to appeal to every 18 year-old who felt he was an outcast, and that would be just about all-18 year-olds.

The band kept going to the extreme with the character Alice Cooper being executed by hanging and electrocution.  Rumors circulated that Alice Cooper bit the head off of a live chicken. Something Furnier denies now but at the time allowed the urban myth to flourish.

Not everyone has to go to the extremes that Alice Cooper did to win fame and fortune but differentiation takes courage.  You have to accept that you might be rejected in a very public way.

Just because you are different does not mean you will succeed.

When McDonald’s introduced the Arch Deluxe they were not really looking for a way to differentiate McDonald’s.  They were trying to appeal to adults with more sophisticated palates and increase market share.  Just one problem—people don’t go to McDonald’s for sophistication.

I remember when this product was launched.  A businessman I was meeting with asked me what I thought of the Arch Deluxe and I told him I thought McDonald’s had made a mistake and forgot who their market was. I will never forget his retort—“Those McDonald’s people are some pretty smart marketers and if they think there is a market for the Arch Deluxe then there is probably a market for it.” I didn’t get his business. I didn’t want it either because he was from the school of ‘let’s copy the big boys.’

It took courage to introduce the Arch Deluxe.  It was a good product but it was not McDonald’s audience and the failure was spectacular.  The Arch Deluxe is a good reminder that even smart marketers can and will make mistakes.

Differentiation takes courage but if you do not differentiate your business will surely die.

About Ken Gasque

Ken Gasque is a brand image-maker, marketing planner and designer. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services to stand out in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing—his work reflects his belief that “We buy with our eyes.” Ken writes and lectures on brands, design, images and brand development. www.Gasque.com