Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd Review

As an avid reader of business books, I often judge them by how they make me think and act several weeks after I absorb them. Well, this book has left me thinking "Different" about my business-particularly of customers and of a commitment to being "lopsided" strategically.

Youngme Moon is one of the most popular professors at Harvard, a recipient of all kinds of teaching awards, and a frequent participant in the YPO Harvard experience. Her writing style which I imagine bespeaks of her popularity is conversational. There is no haughty academia as she navigates marketing, branding, and strategy while making you feel like you just left a supermarket with her full of undifferentiated products!

The first construct that Ms. Moon explores is that the race to being different has mistakenly become a treadmill toward sameness. Her brilliant argument is that while differentiation is considered a "primary defense against commoditization the more diligently firms compete with each other, the less differentiated they can become, at least in the eyes of the consumer". She then embarks on significant examples of this including augmentation by addition whereby products make additional products that are often unclear and not driven by consumer demand (e.g. cavity-free teeth with fresh breath, tarter control, and a whiter smile) and augmentation by multiplication in an attempt to find specific consumer segments (e.g. Diet Coke with lemon). At the end of the day, all of these attempts become an expensive route to commoditization, especially in mature products and services.

I found the section on customer types in mature or hyper-markets compelling. These would include connoisseurs, savvy opportunists, pragmatics, reluctants, and brand loyalists. While I may be connoisseur in personal technology, I consider myself a savvy opportunist in rental cars (one time on priceline), a pragmatic in buying books (Amazon one click), a complete reluctant when it comes to buying oatmeal (can't tell one from another), and a brand loyalist with regards to certain types of food (Ruth Chris for steak). The main point of the framework is that the messages and marketing of a product or services is quite different relative to these customer types and organizations that understand this have an advantage. A second major insight in this regard is her insistence that brand loyalty is harder to come by then ever. Given the mass population of choices and options versus what we had years ago, I couldn't agree more.

The last sections of the book include examples including many companies that she has done case studies. These companies often have tradeoffs to consider (IKEA) or make expectations irrelevant (Cirque du Soleil). Above all, companies that choose to remain really differentiating make their strengths "lopsided" versus their competitors.

I recommend this business book as truly a classic and easily one of the best that I have ever read. All you have to do is see my kindle's 59 highlighted passages and numerous notes which reside on an easily accessible web page which synchronizes them. Let's see the Nook or Sony Reader do that!

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd Feature

• ISBN13: 9780307460851
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd Overview

Why trying to be the best … competing like crazy … makes you mediocre

Every few years a book—through a combination of the author’s unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight—simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson’s A Walk inthe Woods is one example. Richard Feynman’s “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” is another.
 
Now comes Youngme Moon’s Different, a bookfor “people who don’t read business books.” Actually, it’s more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works … and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.
 
If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it’s the absolute importance of “competing like crazy.” Youngme Moon’s message is simply “Get off this treadmill that’s taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else.” Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different—different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.
 
Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts—the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even “hostile,” almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: “Worried that this car is too small? Look here. It’s even smaller than you think.”
 
These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with “extras.”
 
Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reigns…but exceptions rule.

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