Raise your hand if you’ve seen a competitor’s promotion and said, “That’s not special. We do that, too!” Maybe you scoff at first, but as a few days pass by, you started to think, “Wait…maybe I need to tell everyone that we offer that, too.” Before you know it, you’ve pushed out a similar message to remind your market that you can do that, too. Notice how many times we’ve said, “TOO” in this first paragraph?

We see it every day. Banks compete on car rates – who can go the lowest. Emergency rooms compete on ER wait times – who can get you in faster. Bars compete on the best happy hours – who can get you drunker quicker.

The fact is anyone can say, “Me too!” However, your marketing dollars will be far more effective if you find ways to say, “NOT me. We’re different.”

Here’s how we’d turn those examples above into unique brand messages:

BANK

• ME TOO MARKETNG: “We offer 1.99% auto loans, too!”
• WE’RE DIFFERENT MARKETING: “Earn extra cash with our on-time payment reward program.”

HOSPITAL

• ME TOO MARKETNG: “Our ER has short wait times, too!”
• WE’RE DIFFERENT MARKETING: “Save a trip to the hospital with our face-to-face ER online chat program.”

BAR

• ME TOO MARKETNG: “We let ladies drink for free until midnight, too!”
• WE’RE DIFFERENT MARKETING: “Join our VIP Club to receive special privileges like front of line access, reserved VIP tables, discount bottle service, and more.”

“Me, too! Marketing” sometimes works in the very short term, but if you follow that model, you’ll be following your competition forever. Break the habit, take some risks, and proudly tell the world, “WE ARE DIFFERENT.”