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 wetry 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. Market Lifecycle: Product Categories • Product categories start with a single or small set of products. • Increased differentiation creates an increasing number of product variants.

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?

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