KEY POINTS:
You've heard that Rudolph the reindeer had a shiny nose. You've heard of Coke's secret formula. You've heard that a Volvo is a safe car.
So which of the above statements are true? And which are false? And how can you tell?
What you can tell for sure
is the sense of uniqueness: Rudolph has a shiny nose; Blitzen does not.
Coke has a secret formula; Pepsi does not.
Volvo is a safe car; so is a Lexus not quite as safe?
You don't know, do you? You don't know for a fact if a Lexus is safer than a Volvo.
What you do know is that Volvo has driven home the safety angle so many times that when most people say "safe" and "car", you tend to say the brand name Volvo.
And Fidel Castro knew as much. If you were in Cuba in the year 1960, and you picked up the phone, you'd have heard a woman shrieking: "Fatherland or Death!"
The first time you heard it, you'd be astonished. Even scared.
The 74th time, you'd expect to hear the shriek. And if you did not, you'd think the line had gone dead.
And the shriek was Fidel Castro's idea.
What Castro understood, and understood well, was that if you heard something often enough, that something would be indelibly implanted on your brain.
Coke understood the very same concept. When John Pemberton "invented" Coke, there was little or no mention of the secret formula. Asa Candler, who bought the Coke formula from Pemberton, popularised the concept of the formula.
Because, you see, Coke wasn't that thirst-quenching drink to start with.
Coke was advertised as a "brain tonic". The advertising claimed that Coke could cure headaches. And exhaustion. And be used to calm down your nerves. And from those claims sprouted the "secret formula". The formula that is seemingly locked in a vault in Atlanta. That unique formula that few on this planet have laid eyes on.
But we all know about the secret formula. How? Because Coke (and dozens of information sources) perpetuate the same message time and time again.
Are you getting what makes your business unique?
You thought that uniqueness was a factor of what makes you different, right? And you're right, but only partially so. Because imagine you ran a business like, say, a flower boutique on Queen St. And let's imagine you had a "secret formula" that made the flowers last two weeks without wilting.
Would that make you unique? Sure it would. But just you and a few others would know of that uniqueness. For uniqueness to really work well, you cannot simply create a point of difference. You've got to drive home the concept - time and time and time again.
Your signage should say: "Flowers That Last Two Weeks Without Wilting".
Your business card should say: "Flowers That Last Two Weeks Without Wilting". Your flowers should sit in the store window with a date on when they were last replaced. (Demonstrating that they have been there two weeks - yes, without wilting.) Your networking message should emphasise the anti-droop factor.
It's only when everyone and everything starts to say the same message over and over again - and demonstrate the uniqueness in many ways - that you create uniqueness. Until you create a synergy in your branding, your uniqueness is not worth a cent.
Synergy: ah, that's a nice word, because most businesses totally goof up on it. They create their form of uniqueness, but forget to synergise. And as you read in the flower store example above, if you're going after the "anti-droop" factor, then find dozens of ways to demonstrate anti-droop.
It's not much use simply having your uniqueness on your business card. Or paying lip service to your uniqueness while speaking at some event.
Or putting it up on your website.
Just tacking on your uniqueness to some marketing is not going to help you one itty bit. You need to drive home the uniqueness factor in different media, over different situations, and in as many ways as you possibly can.
You know Rudolph has a shiny nose because you've heard it squillions of times in the song. You've seen it on greeting cards. Every cartoon that ever involves Santa seems to include Rudolph's headlight nose.
And Rudolph doesn't even exist. You can't see him. Meet him. Touch him.
Yet you believe in his shiny nose. It's not enough to have a shiny nose business. Your uniqueness alone is not enough.
Once you've created a sense of uniqueness for your business, don't sit there and feel happy. Let the world know about what's unique about you.
Again, and again and again.
And yes, a few hundred, thousand times again.
PS: Tis the season to be jolly and, well, there's nothing like a bunch of really cool cats and dogs to get the Christmas spirit going. Go to www.psychotactics.com/hohoho1.htm.
Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and is an international author, speaker and trainer.
www.psychotactics.com