How to Stand Out, Not Stick Out

The key word in Strategic Differentiation is strategic. If built upon sound strategy, differentiation will Stand Out. That’s good. If not, it’ll Stick Out. That’s bad. To land on the right side of that equation, the brand must understand the evolution of the trend or industry norm it’s up against.

Example:

The branding for hospitals is often bright and airy, full of pastels and cool soothing colors. The natural design goal, here, is to evoke feelings of wellness and healing. Differentiation, here, would be easy. All you’d need is a ghostly, transparent gray color palette with a pop of deep, somber maroon. Maybe a hot pink cursive neon light pointing toward Radiology…

A slightly off-color example, yes, but agencies/brands, trying to make a splash, have done precisely that, and belly-flopped.

Norms and trends exist for a reason. They should be challenged. But they also must be respected. Sometimes the reason for that doesn’t even make sense, at least not in the way it does in the hospital scenario.

True story:

One of our former clients manufactures tools for construction and plumbing professionals. Packaging design for this entire category, including our client’s, existed in a perpetual 1970’s design capsule, and not in a cool way. Finally, a competitor updated, joining planet earth with clean, contemporary packaging, and stole a flat slice of market share, hence our client’s call.

In performing the pre-requisite research for their rebranding campaign, however, we discovered that the offending competitor’s packaging didn’t test as high as its recent success would suggest.

Indeed the surveyed target consumers appreciated the updated look, however, they also expressed concern about the product’s efficacy. Why?

Because they’d been conditioned to expect “industrial”/1970’s packaging design from the products they knew and trusted, therefore they worried that the product inside this “homeowner”/ 21st-century packaging wouldn’t work. Logically it makes no sense. Emotionally, it makes perfect sense.

Fair or unfair, consumers have certain expectations, so if you’re going to defy them, you better have a good reason why. At the same time, this fear should be healthy, not immobilizing, since every brand must innovate to thrive. The greatest risk of all, ultimately, is not taking one. Just make it a calculated risk.