This newsletter comes from the hosts of The Marketing Architects, a research-first show answering your biggest marketing questions. Find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
The marketing world loves a good debate. This week, we tackle a classic one: differentiation vs. distinctiveness. Is it more important to be meaningfully different from competitors or instantly recognizable to consumers?
—Elena
Unique brand associations don’t necessarily equal more buyers.
That’s based on a review of 43 attributes across 94 brands. In fact, some shared associations seemed to have stronger influence over buying decisions compared to unique traits.
Breaking down the brand battle.
Marketers have long debated which matters more: differentiation (meaningful uniqueness) or distinctiveness (instant recognition). Here's what our discussion concluded.
- Distinctiveness is your mental real estate. When consumers face thousands of messages daily, distinctive assets like logos, colors, and characters help brands cut through the noise and stay top-of-mind.
- Differentiation is your closing argument. Once in the consideration set, having meaningful differences from competitors helps justify purchase decisions, especially for high-consideration products.
- Category rules apply. For fast-moving consumer goods like snacks or shampoo, distinctiveness does most of the heavy lifting. For high-ticket items like insurance or appliances, differentiation plays a stronger role in the final decision.
- First-to-mind matters. Studies show even supposedly “rational” B2B buyers often choose the first vendor that comes to mind, making distinctiveness crucial regardless of category.
- The power combo. The strongest brands leverage both. Distinctiveness gets you noticed, and differentiation helps justify the purchase. But without being distinctive, your differentiation won't get a chance to shine.
“What Does Byron Sharp's Research Really Tell Us About Differentiation?”
This WARC article by Rob Meyerson examines Sharp's claim that marketers should focus on "meaningless distinctiveness" rather than "meaningful differentiation."
There’s value in standing out.
“The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd.”
— Albert Einstein