Ever been to a party and had someone wear the exact same outfit as you? I bet you would have been mortified. However there are numerous brands that wear the same "outfits" as their competitors by having creative that is very similar.
After reading BBH Labs articles on Wind Tunnel Marketing it got me thinking. Everything from advertising and media to the launch of new products has been affected by Wind Tunnel Marketing. You might ask what Wind Tunnel Marketing is about? Wind Tunnel Marketing is the theory that agencies are using the similar insights and as a result end up with similar output.
Have you ever noticed that most ads for a category all look the same and the only difference between them is that there is a different logo and a slight change of copy?
The question I ask is how a brand can stand out against their competitors in a category if they appear to be the same!
We need to harness original thinking in order to make our clients brands top of mind with their consumers.
I am not saying that brands need to be over the top and waste money on rather extravagant stunts that will produce minimal reach and sales. What I am saying is that brands should look at what they can do differently to distinguish them from their competitors and look for untrodden territories for the brands to play in.
Brands that create a distinctive personality are rewarded, just look at Red Bull as an example. Red Bull own the consumer mindset of being "Cool by Extreme" and by creating this space it makes it hard for a competitor to mimic their communications because it is so inherently Red Bull.
In order for brands to cure themselves of Wind Tunnel Marketing they must ensure that they are not basing their entire strategy off Roy Morgan runs and industry articles that have been found on Google. Sir John Hegarty says in his book Turning Intelligence into Magic, "If you fish in different ponds, you will get different fish."
To truly stand out from our competitors we must throw away the category insights that everyone uses and find deeper insights that are true to the brands we work on. We need to fish in different ponds to get different fish we need to be looking at problems from all angles and look at different ways in which you tackle a problem.
I believe as an industry we should shun the bland and praise original thinkers as they are what make this industry exciting.
Josh Greive
Mindshare
Twitter: @thespecialchild
*References: Hegarty on Advertising - Turning Intelligence into Magic
The AdNews NGen blog: Same Same but Different Logo
18 July 2011