Differentiate and Thrive!
If there is one thing that I've learned in 23 years' worth of marketing lessons, it's that you need to differentiate your products and services to thrive. Marketing mavens/authors like Al Ries and Seth Godin have preached this approach for years. Godin suggests that you need to be a purple cow in the sea of brown cows to stand out. Otherwise, you and your message blend in; you're essentially lost to prospective clients.
I certainly agree and have always been a big believer in being different. I'm not suggesting that you always swim against the tide (though I sometimes like that approach); just find away to stand out from the pack, the "sea" full of competitors. It's worked for me time and time again.
At a recent trade show, we stood out from several hundred exhibitors by parking a stainless steel DeLorean sports car in our rectangular space. But we didn't stop there. From a diagram that I drew up on a cocktail napkin, we designed a drive-in movie theater around the car, complete with a snack bar, high resolution dvd projector, and big screen (see photo below). It drew crowds of prospective customers to our stand like metal to a powerful magnet.
But we didn't stop with our display. My team developed a program to drive traffic to our exhibit as well as 11 other partner stands located in the same hall. A customer from a Fortune 500 company called the idea "the most creative approach that I've ever seen in an exhibit hall." We capped the event with a Mystery Tour and dinner that ended at the 258-year-old Preservation Jazz Hall in New Orleans' lively French Quarter. The total cost to set ourselves apart from the competition was less than you might imagine.
Too many companies and their creative agencies settle. Whether they are marketing with an event, a web site, or a brochure, the result is a half-baked marketing vehicle and that's deemed good enough. Everything begins to look the same, like Godin's field full of brown cows. Whether it's a literature rack of standard 8 1/2 x 11 brochures or an 8 x 10 pop up display, everything appears to be cloned. For prospects, it's mind numbing.
My advice to businesses, whether they are designing their own displays, events, or marketing materials (from newsletters and brochures to blogs and web sites) is, for goodness' sake, do something different. Go the extra meter so that your head sticks out above the also-rans (and I'm not suggesting that you put it in the clouds). If you are using an agency, actively contribute to the team and push your creatives to design something truly special. If they aren't up to the task, get rid of them. RMC would be more than happy to pick up the slack... as long your goal is to be outstanding.
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ATI's unique display at Corrosion 2008 (NACE). Photo courtesy of Barchfield Photography and ATI.
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