Day of the clones - Young & Rubicam EMEA publications - Y&R

Google too built itself into a globally important
brand without any conventional advertising
whatsoever – it used strategic partnerships with
AOL and others.
So?
Differentiation may not be measured by most
companies.
But it is fundamental to marketing, both analog
and digital.
Without differentiation, a brand cannot lead a
market, or extend into new areas, or charge a
premium.
Without differentiation, a brand becomes a clone.
BUILDING DIFFERENTIATION
Knowing about differentiation is good.
But what really helps is knowing how to grow it.
Unfortunately, many big packaged goods
companies have forgotten.
Instead of building their own highly differentiated
brands, they have started buying them in from
other companies.
The world’s biggest marketers have outsourced
the most important part of marketing.
So how do you grow it?
Here are some of the things we have learned grow
differentiation:
1. Talk to non-users: when Nintendo invented the
Wii, they did so by talking to people who didn’t
use video gaming consoles, and asked them
why they didn’t. Girls told them that unlike their
brothers, they didn’t get off on killing things.
Nintendo gave them Cooking Mama, Wii Fit and
Nintendogs.
2. Get a vision: the Body Shop moved away from
other ‘natural’ toiletry retailers when it announced
it was against animal testing.
No brand need
suffer the
indignity of low
differentiation.
20 Y&R ADVERTISING
DAY OF THE CLONES 21