Different: Can Associations Escape the Competitive Herd?

Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAEMark Dorsey, FASAE, CAE

Janice LaChance, Esq., FASAE

The Book

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon

• Marketing has always been about making your brand stand out from the crowd: being different.

• Yesterday’s different is today’s the same.─ Paradoxically, over time, the more we

try to be different, the more alike we become.

─ “The Herd Instinct.”

The Book

• Truly distinctive brands have found new ways to be different.─ “Idea Brands”

• We have to constantly find new and different ways to be different.─ It is an endless process, not an achievable goal.─ Competitors will always look at each other to see

what is working and then copy it.─ Different will become the same again.

• Product categories start with a single or small set of products.

• Increased differentiation creates an increasing number of product variants.

Market Lifecycle: Product Categories

Market Lifecycle: ProductsAs the number of products within the

category multiplies, the differences become increasingly trivial.

Only category experts/connoisseurs appreciate the difference.

Market Lifecycle: Consumer

• Novice─ Is overwhelmed by the variety of offerings.─ Sees similarities where the marketer wants to point

out differences.─ Wants to differentiate along one or two dimensions,

not thirty.• Connoisseur

─ Recognizes & appreciates subtle shades of distinction.─ Can segment offerings across a wide range of

dimensions.

Market Lifecycle: Consumer

• Acquiring connoisseurship.─ Introduction to category when it was new.─ Immersion.

• The Unaware Brand Connoisseur.─ Emotional Affinity.─ Brand Loyalty.

• Expertise Exhaustion─ Occurs in mature category markets.─ Consumers stop believing that comparative diligence is worth

the effort.• Distinctions without difference.

Why Products Become the Same: The Herd Instinct

• Metrics cause competitors to herd in one direction.─ The minute I discover my competitors score higher

in an attribute, I focus on increasing my own score in that area.

Why Products Become the Same: The Herd Instinct

• My competitors do the same.• We both, independently, focus on eliminating

what makes us different.

The Paradox of Progress

• Two Ways to Make Products Better.─ Augmentation-by-Addition.• Add a new feature or benefit.

─ Augmentation-by-Multiplication• Hyper-Segmentation: offer more & more specialized

varieties

• The “Hedonic Treadmill”─ Each improvement causes consumer expectations

of the acceptable minimum to go up.

The Disconnect Between Marketer & Consumer

• Marketers experience this evolution from the outside in.─ How is the category changing?─ How do we adapt our brand to retain customer

attention & loyalty?• Consumers experience this evolution from the

inside out.─ Brand promises “jump the shark.”─ Loyalty to brand diminishes.─ Loyalty shifts from brand to category.

Idea Brands Break Out From the Herd

• Reverse• Breakaway• Hostile

Reverse Brands

• Disrupt product evolution from its predictable, augmentation path.─ Instead of augmentation, eliminate those things the market

only thinks it wants.─ Add unexpected elements that others in the category do

not.• Examples:

─ IKEA─ JetBlue

• Danger: Once established, there is a temptation to start adding back in, driving you back to the herd.

Breakaway Brands

• Different while remaining recognizably similar.─ Hold on to enough of the original category to allow

for meaningful comparison.─ Add enough that is new/unusual/unexpected to

constitute a legitimate difference.• Examples:

─ Swatch─ Cirque du Soleil─ Huggies Pull-Ups

Hostile Brands• Do the opposite of trying to attract or convince you.

─ Feature, rather than hide deficiencies when compared to others in the category.

• “I dare you to ignore me.”─ “Temperamental bipolarity:” ─ You are as likely to feel negatively as to feel positive, but you will

notice.• Examples:

─ Mini Cooper─ Birkenstock─ Benetton─ Red Bull─ Harley Davidson

Common to All Idea Brands

• Eliminate the option of mindlessness indifference.─ Marketing message might not be effective, but it

can’t get lost in the white noise.• Separate rather than compare.• Focus on differences that make a difference.

Extending Concepts from Different to Associations …

Which Came First: The Product or the Consumer?

• Most commercial providers start with a product or service in mind, then try and identify consumers who will find that product valuable.

• Associations start with a predefined customer base (a profession, industry or cause) first, then try and identify products and services that would be valuable to it.

• What does this mean for associations seeking to be different?

Market Lifecycle

• Have associations experienced the same explosion of product/service variants and reached a stage of increasingly trivial differences?

• How does the novice/connoisseur breakdown within association markets play out in the association space?

Avoiding the Herd

• How many of our strategies for change start from the statement, “We need to be more like …”─ Additive, rather than: “What do we need to pare down in

order to be truly responsive to member needs?”• Rather than focusing resources on improving areas

of weakness where we lag behind “the competition,” are such “deficiencies” opportunities to “stop doing?”

• Are we participating in the herd mentality by flocking to conferences like this to share “best practices”?

Diversity Within Association Product Mix

• Traditional association product lines include both:─ Hyper-mature product categories:

• Meetings and Conventions.• Publications.

─ Less mature product categories• Social Media-based services• Mobile

• What does that mean for association branding efforts?

Possible Association Opportunities

• Add product categories that are less mature/less over saturated but are absent from your current product and service mix.

• Concentrate on what is unique about your defined audience (membership), not on what your competitors are doing. ─ Differentiate based on your defined

industry/profession’s unique needs within a broader market space (such as insurance).

• Are there others?

Idea Brands

• Are there association examples of:─ Reverse Brands,─ Breakaway Brands,─ Hostile Brands?

• Are any of these approaches really sustainable? ─ Will their very success in the market simply

redirect the attention of the herd?─ Do they risk growing stale?

Additional Questions

• Moon argues that applying proven marketing “best practices” over and over again has led to this state of affairs. Entirely new approaches are needed.

• As association executives, have we “over-learned” traditional marketing differentiation tactics in the same way?─ If so, what traditional marketing best practices do we

need to jettison, and what do we replace them with?─ If not, what traditional marketing best practices still have

life for associations and why?

Your Questions?

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