Different: Can Associations Escape the Competitive Herd?
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In the digital world, is there really value differentiation between what associations offer and what is available from the abundance of content sources, and social media connections? The table stakes are high as traditional communications, networking, advocacy, and education are all being redefined in a globally mobile connected world. Are associations truly innovating or merely following the herd? This CEO panel from the 2013 Digital Now conference examined the key principles and issues explored in Youngme Moon’s book “Different,” in exploring how marketers incrementally focus on the same opportunities as everyone else and consequently lose sight of their mandate, which is to create meaningful grooves of separation or differentiation. Is this happening in associations as well, and are their ways to escape the “competitive herd” that Moon describes? When it comes to thriving in an age of widespread uncertainty and rapid-fire innovation, the only thing more worrisome than the prospect of too much experimentation and change may be the reality of too little experimentation and change. There are too many competitors wearing non-profit or for profit hats with products and services that look too much alike.
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Different: Can Associations Escape the Competitive Herd?
- 1. Different: Can Associations Escape the Competitive Herd? Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE Mark Dorsey, FASAE, CAE Janice LaChance, Esq., FASAE
- 2. The Book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon • Marketing has always been about making your brand stand out from the crowd: being different. • Yesterday’s different is today’s the same. ─ Paradoxically, over time, the more we try to be different, the more alike we become. ─ “The Herd Instinct.”
- 3. The Book • Truly distinctive brands have found new ways to be different. ─“Idea Brands” • We have to constantly find new and different ways to be different. ─It is an endless process, not an achievable goal. ─Competitors will always look at each other to see what is working and then copy it. ─Different will become the same again.
- 4. • Product categories start with a single or small set of products. • Increased differentiation creates an increasing number of product variants. Market Lifecycle: Product Categories
- 5. Market Lifecycle: Products As the number of products within the category multiplies, the differences become increasingly trivial. Only category experts/connoisseurs appreciate the difference.
- 6. Market Lifecycle: Consumer • Novice ─ Is overwhelmed by the variety of offerings. ─ Sees similarities where the marketer wants to point out differences. ─ Wants to differentiate along one or two dimensions, not thirty. • Connoisseur ─ Recognizes & appreciates subtle shades of distinction. ─ Can segment offerings across a wide range of dimensions.
- 7. Market Lifecycle: Consumer • Acquiring connoisseurship. ─ Introduction to category when it was new. ─ Immersion. • The Unaware Brand Connoisseur. ─ Emotional Affinity. ─ Brand Loyalty. • Expertise Exhaustion ─ Occurs in mature category markets. ─ Consumers stop believing that comparative diligence is worth the effort. • Distinctions without difference.
- 8. Why Products Become the Same: The Herd Instinct • Metrics cause competitors to herd in one direction. ─The minute I discover my competitors score higher in an attribute, I focus on increasing my own score in that area.
- 9. Why Products Become the Same: The Herd Instinct • My competitors do the same. • We both, independently, focus on eliminating what makes us different.
- 10. The Paradox of Progress • Two Ways to Make Products Better. ─Augmentation-by-Addition. • Add a new feature or benefit. ─Augmentation-by-Multiplication • Hyper-Segmentation: offer more & more specialized varieties • The “Hedonic Treadmill” ─Each improvement causes consumer expectations of the acceptable minimum to go up.
- 11. The Disconnect Between Marketer & Consumer • Marketers experience this evolution from the outside in. ─ How is the category changing? ─ How do we adapt our brand to retain customer attention & loyalty? • Consumers experience this evolution from the inside out. ─ Brand promises “jump the shark.” ─ Loyalty to brand diminishes. ─ Loyalty shifts from brand to category.
- 12. Idea Brands Break Out From the Herd • Reverse • Breakaway • Hostile
- 13. Reverse Brands • Disrupt product evolution from its predictable, augmentation path. ─ Instead of augmentation, eliminate those things the market only thinks it wants. ─ Add unexpected elements that others in the category do not. • Examples: ─ IKEA ─ JetBlue • Danger: Once established, there is a temptation to start adding back in, driving you back to the herd.
- 14. Breakaway Brands • Different while remaining recognizably similar. ─ Hold on to enough of the original category to allow for meaningful comparison. ─ Add enough that is new/unusual/unexpected to constitute a legitimate difference. • Examples: ─ Swatch ─ Cirque du Soleil ─ Huggies Pull-Ups
- 15. Hostile Brands • Do the opposite of trying to attract or convince you. ─ Feature, rather than hide deficiencies when compared to others in the category. • “I dare you to ignore me.” ─ “Temperamental bipolarity:” ─ You are as likely to feel negatively as to feel positive, but you will notice. • Examples: ─ Mini Cooper ─ Birkenstock ─ Benetton ─ Red Bull ─ Harley Davidson
- 16. Common to All Idea Brands • Eliminate the option of mindlessness indifference. ─Marketing message might not be effective, but it can’t get lost in the white noise. • Separate rather than compare. • Focus on differences that make a difference.
- 17. Extending Concepts from Different to Associations …
- 18. Which Came First: The Product or the Consumer? • Most commercial providers start with a product or service in mind, then try and identify consumers who will find that product valuable. • Associations start with a predefined customer base (a profession, industry or cause) first, then try and identify products and services that would be valuable to it. • What does this mean for associations seeking to be different?
- 19. Market Lifecycle • Have associations experienced the same explosion of product/service variants and reached a stage of increasingly trivial differences? • How does the novice/connoisseur breakdown within association markets play out in the association space?
- 20. Avoiding the Herd • How many of our strategies for change start from the statement, “We need to be more like …” ─ Additive, rather than: “What do we need to pare down in order to be truly responsive to member needs?” • Rather than focusing resources on improving areas of weakness where we lag behind “the competition,” are such “deficiencies” opportunities to “stop doing?” • Are we participating in the herd mentality by flocking to conferences like this to share “best practices”?
- 21. Diversity Within Association Product Mix • Traditional association product lines include both: ─Hyper-mature product categories: • Meetings and Conventions. • Publications. ─Less mature product categories • Social Media-based services • Mobile • What does that mean for association branding efforts?
- 22. Possible Association Opportunities • Add product categories that are less mature/less over saturated but are absent from your current product and service mix. • Concentrate on what is unique about your defined audience (membership), not on what your competitors are doing. ─ Differentiate based on your defined industry/profession’s unique needs within a broader market space (such as insurance). • Are there others?
- 23. Idea Brands • Are there association examples of: ─Reverse Brands, ─Breakaway Brands, ─Hostile Brands? • Are any of these approaches really sustainable? ─Will their very success in the market simply redirect the attention of the herd? ─Do they risk growing stale?
- 24. Additional Questions • Moon argues that applying proven marketing “best practices” over and over again has led to this state of affairs. Entirely new approaches are needed. • As association executives, have we “over- learned” traditional marketing differentiation tactics in the same way? ─ If so, what traditional marketing best practices do we need to jettison, and what do we replace them with? ─ If not, what traditional marketing best practices still have life for associations and why?
- 25. Your Questions?
- 26. Thank you! Find this presentation online at: https://digitalnow.anancloud.com/docs/100/6069be3a-8c77-4cac- 9068-15c5dd0ac1f9/Different_Golden_Lachance_Dorsey.pptx
Editor's Notes
- Youngme Moon isChair of the MBA Program at Harvard Business School.Professor Moon's research and course development focuses on the intersection of business, branding, and culture. Different is her first book and was published by Crown Business/Random House in 2010.She has previously published articles and studies in a variety of journals, including the Harvard Business Review, and she has published case studies on companies ranging from Microsoft to IKEA to Intel. Prior to Harvard, she taught at MIT. From 1991-93, she was a producer for NBC News affiliate KRON in San Francisco.Professor Moon serves on the Board of Directors of Avid Technology, creator of digital audio and video technology tools for the entertainment industry.
- Coke and PepsiPowerBarCoke, Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Coca Cola Classic … in 32oz bottles, 16 oz. bottles, 12 oz. cans, 8 oz. bottles.40 different PowerBar varieties
- Novice: Sees similarities.Distinctions without a difference.Wants to differentiate along one or two dimensions (cost, sweetness) not thirty.Connoisseur: “Somehow, you have learned to deconstruct the product category the way a product marketer would: as a cascading set of subcategories and mini-categories. Somehow you have learned to segment the product array across a range of dimensions, and somehow, you have learned to make distinctions between brands that come down to the most minute detail."
- Easiest to be introduced to a product category when it is at a relatively young age. You simply evolve and mature as a consumer as the market itself evolves and matures.It is far more mentally demanding to have to catch up to a category midstream. Because connoisseurship often goes hand-in-hand with devotion, we typically have strong affinity for the category. While the affinity may not be irrational, it has no objective or rational basis beyond history, experience, familiarity and inertia.
- The minute we choose to measure something, we are essentially choosing to aspire to it. A metric, in other words, creates a pointer in a particular direction. And once the pointer is created, it is only a matter of time before competitors herd in the direction of that pointer.Jeep scores high on ruggedness and lower on reliability.Volvo scores high on reliability, lower on ruggedness. Both companies focus on where they can "improve." Jeep increases its reliability Volvo increases its ruggednessThe two become more alike.Once everyone starts doing it, no one stands out.
- The minute we choose to measure something, we are essentially choosing to aspire to it. A metric, in other words, creates a pointer in a particular direction. And once the pointer is created, it is only a matter of time before competitors herd in the direction of that pointer.Jeep scores high on ruggedness and lower on reliability.Volvo scores high on reliability, lower on ruggedness. Both companies focus on where they can "improve." Jeep increases its reliability Volvo increases its ruggednessThe two become more alike.Once everyone starts doing it, no one stands out.
- Hedonic Treadmill:The human predisposition to feel entitled to today what we used to feel thankful for yesterday"An expensive route to commoditization”
- We become increasingly jaded with the claims of differenceOur minds cope with the overload of choices by caring less about what choice we make.It all becomes a blur: the category takes on an identity of its own and we lose sight of the individual brands with it.
- Based less on market research or any tangible metricsDoes not try to augment by addition or multiplicationBased on a different idea of what it means to be diffe
- Furniture you transport and assemble yourselfFurniture for a while, not for a lifetime plus Swedish meatballsNo first class cabinNo discount for round trips Personal entertainment at every, leather upholstered seat
- Although unique and different … it leads to someplace familiarWatches that are not expensive or permanent --- instead interchangeable fashion accessories. We already know what FASHION ACCESSORIES are, so we already know what we're supposed to do with them. Circus without the animals, three rings, cheapness --- instead an upscale entertainment.We know what diapers are for and we know what underwear is for, and we know the limitations of each. Can we create a new product that bridges the gap in between?
- Yes,MiniCoopers are small.Birkenstocks are ugly and hard to find. (limited distribution)I know you are uncomfortable with RedBull and we won’t do anything to alleviate your concern over whether it is a refreshment beverage or a drug.Beneton will promote controversial and divisive political and social issues in its ads Totally unrelated to its products Guaranteed to alienate large parts of their market who might otherwise like the productHarley Davidson We’re loud and lawless. And we don’t care what you think about that.
- In order for the difference to make a difference, not only must there be some kind of departure from the mean, but the departure has got to carry enough significance to be meaningful. There is a kind of difference that says nothing, and there is a kind of difference that speaks volumes
- E.g.; Repurposing the same content for web and print.E.g.; Subdividing membership into SIGS.Actively engaged volunteers and long-time members are connoisseurs.Non-members, new members, perhaps even young members are category novices.
- The crying need for better means of differentiation may be more pressing in those categories that are hyper-mature than for newer categories of association products/services, where traditional augmentation-by-addition or augmentation-by-multiplication may still have legs.
- Example: NCRA insurance offeringsThe membership are Independent Contractors who work at their client’s location and transport specialized and costly (personally owned) equipment to the client’s site. A lot of the typical exposure to liability or loss they faced would NOT be covered by a generic business property and casualty or liability insurance offering. E.g.; most policies would NOT cover equipment stolen from your car.Most would not cover accidental damage to your equipment caused by someone else at a third-party’s place of business. Opposing counsel knocks over reporter’s equipment at deposition held at a different law firm’s offices.Most would not protect against an injury if someone tripped over the reporter’s power cords.Replacing damaged or stolen equipment does NOT protect the reporter from liability for any deposition records lost.NCRA created property and casualty and professional liability coverage specifically tailored to the kinds of mishaps reporters were likely to face. In this case, the differences were real, but hard to communicate to the market. Our coverage and generally available coverage “looked” the same to most consumersThe average insurance salesman wouldn’t recognize or appreciate the kind of unique coverage a court reporter needed for the policy to be truly valuable.The generally available insurance was usually CHEAPER and more heavily MARKETEDOften, court reporters weren’t even aware of what they assumed was covered and wasn’t until they actually experienced a claim (that was denied.)
- Say "Harley Davidson" and what image does it evoke? Hell's Angels at the Rolling Stones concert or Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, Bill Macy and John Travolta in "Wild Hogs"?
- https://digitalnow.anancloud.com/docs/100/6069be3a-8c77-4cac-9068-15c5dd0ac1f9/Different_Golden_Lachance_Dorsey.pptx