B2B Brand Differentiation | Creating Differentiated Brands

Our human senses are bombarded with about 3000 marketing messages each day and research tells us that at any time we can only process approximately 7 pieces of information. Given the limitations of the human attention span, and the excess of available information, the only way a brand would survive today’s hypercompetitive world is through powerful perceptual differentiation – the very fundamental function of branding. This mandate remains till this day, ever since branding was first invented four thousand years ago in the Egyptian plains to differentiate cows.

It remains as common practice for companies to claim as to how they are differentiated by their people, their exemplary service, and superior qualities. Unfortunately, nothing is further from the truth. In the hypercompetitive and hyper-confused globalised business world of today, these attributes are not only a given, they can also be easily acquired and transferred. Such do not serve as strong moats to protect businesses from external threats and competition.

A brand is only a brand if it owns a unique and strongly differentiated idea in the minds of its stakeholders; and this uniqueness is only achievable and sustainable if the differentiation of the brand achieves perceptual differentiation. To create strong brands, companies need to focus their energies on moving from physical tangible differentiators to intangible propositions that are not only desired and relevant, but are propositions that cannot be easily replicated or acquired by one’s competitors.

Distin™ - StrategiCom’s proprietary tool for creating differentiated brands, provides our clients with the opportunity to study the 13 key strategies of differentiation and select the one that is best suited for the brand and the business model. This would be a strategy that is unique and defensible. To ensure that the strategy found is both accurate, objective and sound, the model leverages on the research findings from the Perception Audit, evaluating the competitive landscape of the industry that the client operates in.

With Distin™, you are assured of sustainability as your brand becomes differentiated and deeply seated in the minds of your key stakeholders.