How would your brand rate on distinctiveness?

In the book "How Brands Grow", Byron Sharp set out to research and test long established assumptions on marketing. One of these assumptions that Prof Sharp tested was whether marketers indeed needed to differentiate their products/services at all cost from the competition.

Little evidence was found of the success in differentiating brands in the same category. Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonalds are all essentially fast food outlets.

When a brand makes consumers aware of its distinctiveness, it is more noticeable, recognisable, it improves recall and increase the changes of being sold.

By shifting the emphasis to brand distinctiveness instead of brand differentiation it becomes more cost effective to advertise a brand.

Just as blood letting was thought to have been the only way to rid the body of certain ailments, marketers need to consider old paradigms and take these new findings on board and ensure that every marketing dollar is applied to have a more effective impact.