8 milkshake
While the reasons a brand succumbs
to the “in-the-box” thinking vary from
brand to brand, too many, especially large,
multinational ones, do it out of fear. The fear
of being different from what is considered
the norm in their industries. The fear of
being exposed by others—customers, the
press, employees and other stakeholders.
The fear of being too radical.
The truth of the matter, in the simplest
of terms, is that seeing things and acting
differently are the tenets of creating
something distinctive—a blueprint that you
never considered. Shah says your brand can
present a competitive advantage simply by
implying four things about your resources
and capabilities: Your advantage is valuable,
rare, non-imitable and sustainable.
“You could meet the first two criteria,”
Shah says, “But in today’s world of instant
information accessibility and transfer of
knowledge, imitation—especially among
lookalikes and fake brands is rampant. That
alone makes your sustainability unstable. If
you are able to see into the future—looking
forward 10-20 years and being bold enough
to make wild predictions that higher ups can
agree upon—you’re more likely to not have
to compete with anyone.”
Innovation + Innovating =
Success
While being bold may be the most effective
way to differentiate yourself from the others,
it is a strategy many brands are leery of
making. Still, Brad Kugler believes it is worth
the effort. The CEO of DirectMail2.0 did
just that when he founded the white-label
software company in 2017 that seamlessly
integrates digital services with traditional
direct mail. By adding services like mail
tracking, call tracking and Google follow-up,
DirectMail2.0 stepped out of the box to offer
a strategy that showed results.
“There’s lots of competition and change, so
you have to do something not only different,
but effective to stand out,” Kugler says.
“Consumers have more choices and more
ways to discover those choices, so it’s vital
you never stop innovating, whether you’re a
brand, service or product.”
And sure, while it may be easier to
follow the leader, Kugler says today’s fickle
consumers always move on to the next shiny
object. So, why not be that shiny object?
“If you are being innovative and daring, you
assumptions, models and boundaries of
its leadership. If an organization wants to
go beyond incremental growth and end up
with transformational outcomes that result
in disruptive growth, leadership must be
willing to break down walls.
“These walls hold in old assumptions
about consumers, competitors and even the
company itself,” Shah says. “In order to do
this, you have to turn the challenge or issue
on its head and look at it from a different
perspective. This often requires new people
joining the organization who are not yet
engulfed in the current level of risk-taking
culture within that organization.”
THERE’S
LOTS OF
COMPETITION
AND CHANGE,
SO YOU HAVE TO DO
SOMETHING NOT
ONLY DIFFERENT,
BUT EFFECTIVE TO
STAND OUT.”
— BRAD KUGLER, FOUNDER/CEO,
DIRECTMAIL2.0
April 2022