ReaditFor.me | Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd

Understanding and communicating how you are different from your competition is critical to your long-term success. The tricky part is how to do it.

Youngme Moon (a Harvard business school professor) wrote the book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd to help us consider specific ways we can stand out in a crowded marketplace, using successful case studies as her starting point.

Today I read a summary of the book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon.

I learned some very specific techniques for making sure we stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Here are three of them from the book to consider this week:

Reversal. Eliminate most/all of the features our competitors have been using to compete. Like Jet Blue getting rid of first class and free meals. Or IKEA forcing you to assemble your own furniture.

Breakaway. Replace one mental model with another. Like Kimberly-Clark creating the “Pull Up”, which completely eliminates the stigma of wearing a diaper beyond age 2. Or Swatch, which asked it’s marketplace to consider a watch to be an everyday fashion accessory instead of an expensive piece of jewelry.

Hostility. Instead of laying down a welcome mat, you lay down a gauntlet. Like Mini, who turns a perceived weakness (their cars are super small), and turning it into the focal point of their marketing program.

If you want more, you can read a summary of this book here today (you’ll need to create a free account first):  https://readitfor.me/read-rothbard


This link offers you a free Readitfor.me Membership (daily summary by text only), which is regularly $9.99/month.

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