The Marketing Journal
  • About
  • Interviews
  • Articles
  • Videos
  • Book Reviews
  • Views
  • Subscribe
“Be Different, Not Better” – Christopher Lochhead and Heather Clancy

“Be Different, Not Better” – Christopher Lochhead and Heather Clancy

July 18, 2018

Christopher Lochhead is co-author with Heather Clancy of the new Niche Down: How to Become Legendary by Being Different and the Harper Collins “instant classic”: Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.

Here’s an excerpt from the new book:

In the movie “There’s Something About Mary” there is a scene during which the Ben Stiller character picks up a crazed hitchhiker — played by the legendary comedian Harland Williams.

As the vignette plays out, Williams’ would-be entrepreneur enthusiastically pitches his captive audience his can’t-miss business idea: a “7-Minute Abs” video that he is convinced will outsell the popular “8-Minute Abs” workout.

A no-brainer, right? Right?

A skeptical Stiller responds with: “That’s good — unless, of course, somebody comes up with ‘6-Minute Abs.’ Then you’re in trouble, huh?”

At which point the hitchhiker and would-be entrepreneur starts convulsing in the passenger seat, dismayed by the wake-up call that all but banishes his dream.

Here’s the reality: Many solopreneurs and startups are positioning themselves to become “7-Minute Disasters,” just like Harland’s character.

That may sound like a harsh observation, but think about it. Most people and most businesses are building entire companies on go-to-market plans that attack an existing market category with a strategy of “we’re better.”

They spend their lives competing in a game they can’t win, instead of having the courage to create their own game.

Pepsi just well might be the most tragic, quintessential example in history of the 7-Minute Loser blunder.

It made a multi-billion-dollar mistake by running ads comparing itself to Coca-Cola. “The Pepsi Challenge” proclaimed to the world that Pepsi’s cola tasted better than Coke. Go on, try us side by side, the marketers urged. All this campaign did was reinforce Coke’s leadership position, its unique market-category leadership.

After decades of cola category wars, Coke is still No. 1.

Even neighborhood pizza joints suffer the same fates when they compare themselves to rivals.

In the five square miles surrounding the village in Northern New Jersey where Heather makes her home, there are literally 30 restaurants that sell some sort of dough-covered-with-cheese-and-other-stuff — and that’s just the ones that market themselves online.

Most of these establishments are tossing some sort of twist on the “New-York style.” But there is just one that specializes in wafer-thin-crust pies that are totally unlike the fare you find at your average pizza parlor anywhere else in the state, or the country for that matter.

It’s called Nellie’s Place, established back in 1989 by Irish immigrants (you don’t need to be Italian to “own” an Italian food category!) and still a vital part of community.

The rest of Nellie’s menu is actually pretty ordinary. You go there for the pies (don’t bother buying the small one because you’ll look like a lightweight) and the Irish draft ales.

You’ll often wait an hour for the privilege of finding a seat. Nellie’s doesn’t deliver, but it’s usually flooded with takeout orders. If you don’t like thin-crust pizza, don’t go there. Call one of the other 29 or so places that are competing on price or on the promise that they will beat a path to your doorstep a few minutes quicker than the other guys.

Sure, some of those other pizza joints do sell thin crust as a menu option ‘cause it’s a Jersey thing, but Nellie’s is the name you remember on Heather’s dead-end street.

Nellie’s wins by offering different pizza, not better pizza.

No matter where your company is located or how big it is, when you position your business or yourself as “better” than some other option, you are invading someone else’s queendom. You are fighting for attention, messaging your mission according to someone else’s rules — a person or business that your customers already know.

You’re playing a comparison game.

And when two people say, “I’m the best,” by definition one is lying.

Making it worse, the game you’re playing is a game invented by someone other than you. They set the agenda in the minds of the category. Not you. They frame the problem. They educate the world on how to solve the problem and what the product or service is worth. So, you will always be compared to “them.”

We are begging.

Please don’t be a “7-Minute Disaster.” Don’t compete on someone else’s terms.

Instead, design your own market category. Become known for a niche you can own. That way, others will follow you. Others will be compared to you versus you being compared to others.

That’s a good thing.

If you are open to soaking in the ideas that we present throughout this book, you’ll gain real insights into how to be crowned category queen or king. The person who solves a specific problem in a unique way. The person who changes people’s thinking with a different point of view. The person who makes their own place in the world. The person who makes a giant difference in a given category.

The person who captures outsized earnings.

Be Different, Not Better

It doesn’t matter whether your objective is to mold a professional-services business on your own or to build a small venture that employs others who believe in your mission. Designing a unique and distinct category niche is the biggest step that any entrepreneur — whether she is going it alone or leading others — can take towards successfully carving out territory in the minds of the audience she wants to attract.

It comes down to leveraging the exponential value of what makes you or your venture “different”rather than leaning on the incremental value of what makes you “better.”

There’s no such thing as a business that exists in a vacuum. Here’s proof from the restaurant world.

If we say to you, “Let’s go to Gabriella’s for dinner!” your logical response might be, “What type of food does it serve?” When you ask that, what you’re really asking is, “What category of restaurant is Gabriella’s?”

In any buying decision, humans need to know the category first, then they’ll consider the brand second. It’s how we make sense of the world.

Person A: “Want a piece of gum?”

Person B: “What kind of gum is it?”

Person A: “Honey, can you pick up some Scotch on the way home?”

Person B: “What type of Scotch would you like?”

Category first, brand second.

Examples are all around your neighborhood, your slice of the world.

Nursing a cavity? Need to have your teeth cleaned? You have to know what a dentist is and believe he or she solves an important problem before you start shopping for one. And dentists intuitively understand that people shop category first and brand second.

That’s why almost every dental sign you see in America says in BIG FONT, “DENTIST” and in small font, “Jane Jones, DDS.” Dentists instinctively understand — category first, brand second.

Your No. 1 goal on the path to legendary is to achieve a unique position, one with which your brand can become synonymous.

Imagine being so respected in your field that other people who do similar things are compared to you, because you are the category queen — the leader in mindshare.

Examples are everywhere.

Take legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay.

You could describe the heavyweight champion as a great athlete and he was, holding several records for close to four decades and topping rankings by Sports Illustrated and the BBC. But the real reason Ali occupies such a unique piece in people’s hearts and minds is that he created his own category — he was the original social-activist athlete.

Ali wasn’t afraid to use his voice at a time when others in his position usually deferred to their managers.

Ali was the first athlete to take a very public stand for civil rights and social justice — refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military in the mid-1960s, citing both his religion (he converted to Islam) and his objection to the Vietnam War.

Ali’s status as champion kept him — and these issues — in the spotlight during the five years he fought his draft conviction, eventually winning an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.

Even though he was stripped of his titles and banned from the sport he loved during the prolonged legal battle, Ali was often dead center in the ring of public opinion, for good and for bad. His return to the ring was relatively seamless as a result. That’s why Ali transcended boxing and became a category king, the person to whom all other “combat athletes” are compared.

Isn’t that just good branding, you ask? No. It’s not.

Quite bluntly, branding in the absence of category creation is bullshit.

SEE ALSO: 

“Play Bigger: The How and Why of Category Design” – An Interview with Christopher Lochhead

Christopher Lochhead hosts the acclaimed dialogue podcast “Legends & Losers.” A former three-time, Silicon Valley public company CMO (Mercury Interactive, Scient and Vantive), he’s been called a “godfather of category design.” Christopher is living happily ever after in Santa Cruz, California, with a wonderful woman, six hens and two feral cats. He can often be found surfing, drinking whiskey or having a very good time.

Heather Clancy is an award-winning journalist specializing in transformative technology and innovation. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. She was the launch editor for the Fortune Data Sheet, the magazine’s newsletter dedicated to the business of technology. As editorial director for GreenBiz.com, Heather chronicles the role of technology in enabling clean energy, sustainable business strategy and the low-carbon economy. When she isn’t writing, you can find Heather digging in her garden in Northern New Jersey, singing a cappella or scuba-diving with her husband.

Related Posts

“Technology and the Common Good” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler

B2B Marketing /

“Technology and the Common Good” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler

“Wicked Problems” – An Interview with Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar

B2C Marketing /

“Wicked Problems” – An Interview with Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar

“Cultural Presence: The Social Function of Milan Design Week” – Barbara Dal Corso

Branding /

“Cultural Presence: The Social Function of Milan Design Week” – Barbara Dal Corso

‹ “Delta’s Customer-Centric Success: Implications for B2B Sales and Marketing” – Frank Grillo and Mark Blessington › “Who Won the World Cup?” – Branding Analysis from SoccerBlog.com
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Recent Posts

  • “Technology and the Common Good” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler
  • “Cultural Presence: The Social Function of Milan Design Week” – Barbara Dal Corso
  • “Wicked Problems” – An Interview with Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar
  • “Dragon proofing your legacy brand” – Grant McCracken
  • OP-ED: “Autopsy Of a Brand: Tesla” – George Tsakraklides
  • “The 5th P is Purpose” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler
  • “The CEO-as-Brand Era: How Leadership Ego is Fueling Tesla’s Meltdown” – Ilenia Vidili
  • “The Future of Marketing is the Quest for Good” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler
  • “Questions for the New Year” – John Hagel
  • “Enlightened Management – An Interview with Gabriele Carboni”
  • “If you’re not thinking segments, you’re not thinking” – Anthony Ulwick
  • “Does Marketing Need Curtailment for the Sake of Sustainability?” – Philip Kotler
  • ‘Social profit orientation’ can help companies and nonprofits alike do more good in the world by Leonard L. Berry, Lerzan Aksoy, and Tracey Danaher
  • “Understanding Hallyu: The Impact of Korean Pop Culture” by Sanya Anand and David Seyheon Baek
  • “Go-to-Market (GTM): A New Definition” – Karthi Ratnam
  • “Jobs-to-be-Done for Government” – Anthony Ulwick
  • “The Power of Superconsumers” – Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, & Katrina Kirsch
  • “Zoom Out/Zoom In – Making It Personal” – John Hagel
  • “Regeneration or Extinction?” – a discussion with Philip Kotler, Christian Sarkar, and Enrico Foglia
  • “Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap” – James Dyke, Robert Watson, and Wolfgang Knorr
  • “The allure of the ad-lib: New research identifies why people prefer spontaneity in entertainment” – Jacqueline Rifkin and Katherine Du
  • “What is ‘ethical AI’ and how can companies achieve it?” by Dennis Hirsch and Piers Norris Turner
  • “How the US military used magazines to target ‘vulnerable’ groups with recruiting ads” – Jeremiah Favara
  • “Ethics and AI: Policies for Governance and Regulation” – Aryssa Yoon, Christian Sarkar, and Philip Kotler
  • “Product Feature Prioritization —How to Align on the Right List” – Bob Pennisi
  • “The Community Value Pyramid” – Christian Sarkar, Philip Kotler, Enrico Foglia
  • “Next Practices in Museum Experience Design” – Barbara Dal Corso
  • “What does ESG mean?” – Luciana Echazú and Diego C. Nocetti
  • “ChatGPT could be a game-changer for marketers, but it won’t replace humans any time soon” – Omar H. Fares
  • “If Your Brand Comes Before Your Category, You’re Doing It Wrong” – Eddie Yoon, Nicolas Cole, Christopher Lochhead

Categories

  • Advertising
  • AI
  • Analytics
  • B2B Marketing
  • B2C Marketing
  • Big Data
  • Book Reviews
  • Brand Activism
  • Branding
  • Category Design
  • Community
  • Content Marketing
  • COVID-19
  • Creativity
  • Customer Culture
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Dark Marketing
  • Decision Making
  • Design
  • Digital Marketing
  • Ecosystems & Platforms
  • Ethics
  • Go to Market
  • Innovation
  • Internet of Things
  • Jobs-to-be-Done
  • Leadership
  • Manipulation
  • Marketing Technology
  • Markets & Segmentation
  • Meaning
  • Metrics & Outcomes
  • Millennials
  • Mobile Marketing
  • Non Profit Marketing
  • Organizational Alignment
  • Peace Marketing
  • Privacy
  • Product Marketing
  • Regeneration
  • Regenerative Marketing
  • Research
  • Retail
  • Risk & Reputation
  • Sales
  • Services Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Strategy & Business Models
  • Sustainability
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • September 2024
  • March 2024
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • August 2022
  • May 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016

Back to Top

© 2016-19 The Marketing Journal and the individual author(s). All Rights Reserved
Produced by: Double Loop Marketing LLC
By using this site, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to the use of cookies, our privacy policy, and our terms of use.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy