{"id":360,"date":"2018-05-19T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=360"},"modified":"2018-05-19T06:00:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T06:00:41","slug":"the-big-trap-for-brands-a-sea-of-sameness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/19\/the-big-trap-for-brands-a-sea-of-sameness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Trap for Brands: A Sea of Sameness!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>The Big Trap for Brands: A Sea of Sameness<\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b><i>Normal needs a new normalising!<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">Since there is so much interest, let me start from the\u00a0<b>bottom line.<\/b>\u00a0It is no coincidence that damn near everything that you and me buy or want to buy, seems to have a label &#8216;\u00a0<b>Made in China<\/b>\u00a0&#8216;. Now, that includes airplane wings &#8230;as well as caps!<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">Instant knock offs-with excellence- have become the norm. From shoes to sweaters to computers to restaurants. The quality of damn near everything is terrific. Things that work well are not unusual.\u00a0<b>Things that don&#8217;t work are<\/b>\u00a0<i><b>unusual.<\/b><\/i><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">By design or accident, we are afloat, awash, adrift&#8230;in a\u00a0<b>Sea of Sameness<\/b>. High-quality sameness, but sameness nonethless.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">An idea that has legs ..lasts only a few weeks, a few months at best. Then the sequel. And the sequel that follows the sequel. And so on.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">Sure heard this before.\u00a0<b>Herd mentality<\/b>. We race around. Follow each other&#8217;s tails. From\u00a0<b>Hollywood\u00a0<\/b>to\u00a0<b>Silicon Valley<\/b>\u00a0to\u00a0<b>Madison Avenue<\/b>\u00a0to<b>\u00a0Jamal Abdul Nasar Street.<\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">As Swedish business professors\u00a0<b>\u00a0Kjell Nordstrom<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<b>Jonas Ridderstrale\u00a0<\/b>brilliantly articulated in their book &#8216;\u00a0<b>Funky Business<\/b>\u00a0&#8216;, &#8221; The\u00a0<b>surplus society<\/b>\u00a0has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with almost similar educational backgrounds..coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices..and similar qualities &#8220;. Ouch, that is painful!<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">The\u00a0<b>10X\/10X theory<\/b>\u00a0on that is that you could be 10 times better. While being ten times less different.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">The basic idea that I am echoing here is that &#8216;\u00a0<b>Good Stuff\u00a0<\/b>&#8216; is commonplace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&#8220;. It&#8217;s no longer exceptional for stuff (anything, everything ) to work. Which means the bar for &#8221;\u00a0<b>standing out\u00a0<\/b>&#8221; has risen dramatically.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">In a winner takes all world,\u00a0<b>Normal = Nothing<\/b>. So time to stop being goddamn normal.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">Dovetailing seamlessly into this line of thought is the Danish\u00a0<b>marketing phenomenon<\/b>\u00a0<b>Jesper Kunde&#8217;s<\/b>\u00a0articulation &#8221; Companies have defined so much\u00a0<b>best practice<\/b>\u00a0that they are now more or less\u00a0<b>identical.<\/b>\u00a0&#8221; It&#8217;s commoditised. Instead, how about &#8221;\u00a0<b><i>It&#8217;s yet to be practiced<\/i><\/b>\u00a0&#8220;?<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">In other words, the only way to make a difference is to, well, &#8220;<b>\u00a0Make a Difference\u00a0<\/b>&#8220;.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>Standing out<\/b>\u00a0in a world where most everything works is stupefying difficult. And yet some companies are making a go of it. How I hate the word &#8216;\u00a0<b>normal\u00a0<\/b>&#8216;.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">We are in a &#8221;\u00a0<b><i>Don&#8217;t just sit there economy<\/i><\/b>\u00a0&#8221; &#8211; so, embrace abnormal. Never mind if you are first mover, last mover, first follower or fast follower. Go for it!<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SOS-216x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"330\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SOS-216x300.jpg 216w, https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SOS.jpg 725w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 85vw, 330px\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>ENDS<\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>www.groupisd.com\/story<\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\"><b>www.brandknewmag.com<\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Big Trap for Brands: A Sea of Sameness Normal needs a new normalising! Since there is so much interest, let me start from the\u00a0bottom line.\u00a0It is no coincidence that damn near everything that you and me buy or want to buy, seems to have a label &#8216;\u00a0Made in China\u00a0&#8216;. Now, that includes airplane wings &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/19\/the-big-trap-for-brands-a-sea-of-sameness\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Big Trap for Brands: A Sea of Sameness!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[216,55,14,185,161,221,217,220,219,13,63,218],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-best-practice","tag-book","tag-brands","tag-economy","tag-excellence","tag-funky-business","tag-jesper-kunde","tag-jonas-ridderstrale","tag-kjell-nordstrom","tag-marketers","tag-marketing","tag-swedish-professors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}