Dare To Be Different, Create A Customer Experience

Those that are different stand out, attract attention and if the customer experience is authentic - trust.

This is what creates brand leaders. Yet many fail to get this right and the reason is a very simple:

• It is our nature to copy things. It’s what makes us human. As business leaders and marketing experts we look at what has worked for others and believe it will work for us and we get the same results. Sadly this is the downhill fight for mediocrity. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.
• We are educated to do the same thing, to follow best practice and what is main stream. We go to school, wear the same uniform and conform. We go to university and strive to pass cum laude with other peoples thoughts. This is an argument for obeying the rules and doing the tried and tested. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.

It’s sad but we are taught to comply rather than dare.

Living In A World Of Technical Marketers

Your customer is not asking you for what they can get from someone else or for conformity. They are looking for something different, a customer experience that blows their socks off – all you need to do is dare.

This is why most marketers are no longer marketers. They lost the dream a long time ago and become highly adept marketing technicians. They have assimilated and perfected the traditional marketing models as their own.

They have become adept at buying media space, creating TV commercials, and worrying about the bleed on the front page of the magazine commercial.

It’s Not Too Late To Dare To Be Different

It is the marketers who have dared that are great today. They are the rebels of our society and have created brands that are – well – mind-blowing to say the least. The customer experience really rocks. And to get this right they did one of two things really well:

• Created mind blowing service
• Created mind blowing products
• (or both)

And then they created RaveTopia  - a community which they are a member of. These are brands like:

• www.threadless.com
• www.zappos.com
• www.amazon.com
• www.istock.com
• www.apple.com

There’s nothing like them in the world. They stand apart. They dared to be different do something that wasn’t taught in business school. Our challenge to you is to create a brand that stands alone because it dared to be different. It fought to overcome mediocrity. To be part a community where your customers are your source of inspiration.

A Call To Action – Create RaveTopia

You just need to focus on three things

• Focus on your customer ask yourself two questions;
  • how can I do this differently,
  • and why should I do it different (We said dare to be different – not be stupid)
• Do things for your community that are relevant and positive
• Focus on the power of the Butterfly Effect – like changing how you spend your marketing budget.