Four Cornerstones of Distinction by Scott McKain

It all begins with a simple question:“How can our customers and prospects tell the difference between us and our competition?” Here’s what I find absolutely amazing — the most prevalent answer I hear from highly successful and sophisticated marketing leaders in a wide array of industries is: “I don’t know.”

Distinction is like a vaccine for your organization. If you don’t know what distinguishes you from your competitor — or, if the answer is “price” – then I believe that you are probably doomed, in the long run.

In one of my earlier books, I described the fortunate set of circumstances that enabled me to play the role of the villain in a highly-regarded German movie, “Stroszek” by the esteemed director, Werner Herzog. This marvelous event in my life later afforded me another unlikely opportunity — to become a film critic, with my commentaries syndicated across the U.S. and around the world.

Several years ago, I attended a reception in Hollywood, and had the occasion to meet the best in the business, Roger Ebert. To my delight and surprise, the famed critic remembered the terrific review he gave my solitary attempt at acting. Roger asked me to sit with him and his wife, and we began a warm and fascinating conversation.

Roger asked me, “Scott, how many movies are you normally seeing in any given week?” My answer was that the usual total was one – the film I would be reviewing for that week’s broadcast. He responded, “Many of the people in this profession are seeing one or two movies a day! The little off-beat, quirky, odd, foreign or independent film captures our attention because they are a bit different! When you are overwhelmed with such boring similarity, you begin to perceive that ‘different’ IS ‘better’!

The remarkable Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and critic taught me a great lesson I now call “The Ebert Effect”: When someone, from their perspective, is inundated with indistinguishable choices, they perceive a product, service, approach, or experience that possesses a specific point of differentiation to be superior.

Because this effect means that different is perceived to be better, we must realize that there are four steps — I call them the “Four Cornerstones of Distinction” — that create what every organization, and professional, needs in today’s volatile economy.

The first Cornerstone is Clarity. To grab attention and guarantee satisfaction, you have to be precise about who and what you are. You cannot differentiate what you cannot define.

The second Cornerstone is Creativity. Distinctive organizations find some unique twist, some original spin to put on the interaction that they have with customers.

The third of the Cornerstones is Communication. And, while we often hear about the importance of that topic, what our research clearly shows is that today’s customer wants to be engaged by a compelling narrative. Tell the story of your product, your company, and your service in a manner that involves customers and prospects.

The final Cornerstone is Customer-Experience Focus. This more than the old “focus on the customer” line we’ve heard for years. Today’s customer centers purchase decisions as much on feelings as facts and figures. In other words, how they feel about your marketing — and the experience and emotional connectivity they have with your organization and people — are the primary determinates of what they will buy and refer.

The easiest tactic for you is simply to continue what you are currently doing. Let me emphatically state my belief that this is also the most dangerous approach.

Because of the Three Destroyers of Differentiation discussed in the previous post, your job – organizationally and individually – is only going to continue to grow in difficulty. However, if you begin today to chart a fresh approach based upon the Four Cornerstones of Distinction, you can begin to enhance your organization — while you nurture and grow yourself.

Check out Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails by Scott McKain (Thomas Nelson, March 2009)

The Three Destroyers of Differentiation by Scott McKain

There was a time not too long ago when Chevy owners felt superior to those poor souls driving a Ford — and vice versa. A person gained identification through the goods that they purchased, the stores where they shopped, the institutions where they invested — no matter the level of price or sophistication of the product.

Now, however, over the past several years we have seen the homogenization of practically everything. The big store where I shop almost certainly appears and feels a lot like yours, no matter the logo on the door, no matter the community where it is located.

When customers perceive times are a bit tighter, they naturally want to spend their money where they sense they are receiving the highest degree of value. Certainly, they’ll become more price conscious than in better financial situations. However, if you differentiate your business and yourself, you will find that a downturn is tailor-made for grabbing market share from your competitors.

If you cannot find it within you to become emotional, committed, engaged, and…yes…FERVENT about differentiation, then you had better be prepared to take your place among that vast throng of the mediocre who are judged by their customers solely on the basis of price. It is the singularly worst place to be in all of business. If you aren’t willing to create distinction for yourself in your profession — and for your organization in the marketplace — then prepare to take your seat there in the back, with the substantial swarm of the similar, where tedium reigns supreme.

There is a trio of aspects — called in my book the Three Destroyers of Differentiation that created the “Collapse of Distinction.” Taken individually, each of these Destroyers creates a compelling challenge for you in the marketplace. When combined, they have a synergistic and destructive impact on your industry, your organization…and you!

The first Destroyer is: Copycat Competition. When my competitor creates a point of distinction, my natural inclination is to either:

a) Copy/imitate the improvement; or,

b) Attempt to incrementally improve upon their advancement

Notice the distinction problem with this paradigm: My efforts are based upon what my competitor is doing — NOT what my customers may truly desire! And, in most cases, both your advancements and mine have been evolutionary — NOT revolutionary. We have arrived at the point where most organizations focus more on the competition than their customers.

The second Destroyer is: New — and Better — Competition. If you are like most, your reaction to Destroyer Two — cultural, technological and societal change bringing new competitors to your doorstep — is to probably execute precisely the wrong strategy. You figure if most of your customers are going to McDonald’s, you try to “out-McDonald’s” them to restore your business. Unfortunately — and despite your best intentions — imitation gains you little traction in the marketplace.

The third Destroyer is: Familiarity Breeds Complacency. My Mom told me that, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” As much as I hate to dispute her advice, this isn’t true. When something, like a product or service is present so much that it becomes thoroughly familiar and is boundlessly available, we do not then begin to scorn it, hate it, or express disdain towards it. Instead, we begin to take it for granted. We become complacent and presume it will always be around.

What a combination! You may be:

1. Creating only incremental improvements, so there is nothing to distinguishes you from your competition
2. Encountering new competition that you didn’t even dream of a few years earlier — and they are tough, price-slashing competitors that can rapidly deliver either a similar (or even the very same) product or service to your customers
3. Taken for granted by the customers you have served for a period of time because they have been lulled into complacency through their total familiarity with your execution

The next segment will outline the Four Cornerstones of Distinction — and show you the process to create a compelling strategy to stand out and move up — while your competition fails!

Check out Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails by Scott McKain (Thomas Nelson, March 2009)

Michael Arrington’s Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination post from two weeks ago garnered alot of attention. I just wanted share the additional recommendations from the genre that popped up in various places.

In the comment thread of Arrington’s post itself:

• Seth Wagoner recommends Charlie Stross and Ken MacLeod, pointing to Marc Andreessen’s post on top novelists from this decade.
• Ben says “I’d have to agree with everything on this list – although it’s a bit of a ‘beginners guide’ to sci-fi. Add in Peter F. Hamilton, the Cormac novels of Neal Asher etc. and you’re humming.”
• Tom recommends:
• Richard K. Morgan – Altered Carbon (all his stuff is great but AC is a good introduction)
• Neal Asher – The Skinner
• Alastair Reynolds – Revelation Space (Chasm city and the prefect are also awesome books)
• Charles Stross – Singularity Sky (Halting State is another stand out book)
• Mark suggests The Player of Games by Iain Banks
• And almost all the comments recommend the addition of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

On our own post, Seth Godin commented that “[E]very employee I’ve hired in the last ten years has been required to read Snow Crash [by Neal Stephenson].” He also highly recommends Cory Doctorow. In his latest book Tribes, he starts the acknowledgements with one to Doctorow and his book Eastern Standard Tribe.

Finally, Michael Fitzgerald at BNET writes:

[H]ere are three science fiction authors he should have on there and doesn’t: John Brunner (“Squares of the City” is the one I’ve read, though “Shockwave Rider” is probably more relevant), Vernor Vinge (“Rainbows End” is his most recent, and I posted on its vision for the Future of Business, but “True Names” would matter more to high-tech entrepreneurs), and William Gibson (“Neuromancer,” natch…).

Anyone else want to chime in?