Why being disruptive isn't as important as being consistent
One of the keys to successful marketing is being different, but more importantly being different consistently.
Remember when YouTube and Facebook video were on the rise and everyone was making videos or filming themselves doing weird shit in the hope they’d be disruptive enough ‘go viral!’?
This isn’t going to be some weird arty ‘holding up the mirror to society’ pieces. But I think we can all agree it takes a lot to break through our barriers these days. Very little shocks us. Very little is disruptive enough to hold our attention until we’re distracted and move onto something else.
So where to from here?
Great brands are generally two things.
They’re disruptive to the category they’re in.
That doesn’t mean they’re aggressive, crass or just generally disruptive to life (although some definitely are). It just means they’re not like any of their competitors.
They stand for things their competitors don’t in their consumer’s mind. And that last part is fundamental. It’s all well and good that you think your positioning and activity is disruptive to your category. But as I’ve told you before, your customer doesn’t care about you and your brand as much as you do. So make sure your consumer actually perceives you differently with research and testing.
They’re consistent to their brand.
Even though they’re disruptive - they consistently showing up in market the same way. They look, sound, smell, (taste?) the same in every interaction the customer has with them.
That helps customers figure out what they stand for and more importantly who it is each time. We’re creatures of habit and gravitate towards consistency. So as well as nailing the fundamentals like their assets - their actions are aligned to what makes them disruptive.
Hublot - a masterclass in being consistently disruptive
I’m going to explain this using an example I picked up in a class Mark Ritson ran on tactics I was lucky enough to attend. For me it’s an incredibly powerful (and memorable) example of consistent disruption by a brand.
For the uninitiated - Hublot is a Swiss luxury watch brand. Their watches retail for the cost of a house so they’re definitely not for everyone.
As much as I’d like to, I don’t own a luxury watch. But I’ve seen enough ads to know…
They’re all silver or some other precious metal.
Their brand ambassadors are largely handsome, albeit, bland famous white men.
The ads for them all look the same. Sometimes there’s a pretty woman with her arm around said man. Other times there’s a car, jet or some other fast moving piece of kit.
You get me though, right? Very boring, safe category. Which you get, they’re high involvement, relatively low frequency purchases.
how is Hublot disruptive?
Hublot’s positioning is combining things that typically don’t go together, but the genius of Hublot is how consistently they apply this approach to literally everything they do.
From a product perspective they were the first to do a gold watch with a rubber strap. Pretty cool, right? Don’t worry, you don’t need to get impressed yet.
As I pointed out this is a category where polished handsome, reputable men like Hugh Jackman, Steve McQueen and David Beckham peddle watches on the back of magazines. So in the essence of their brand who did a this luxury watch brand get as their spokes person? Professional footballer and coke-fuelled human train wreck Diego Maradona. Odd choice, right? That’s exactly the point.
Next - think about those bland, consistent ads with planes, cars and handsome, flawless men. Quick story for context. Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 boss was mugged back in 2010 for his 11k quid F1 King Power Hublot watch. By all accounts, Bernie put up a fight because even though he’s in his 80s, he’s a proper east-end geezer. In the end he wound up with a pretty heft black eye and busted jaw (Google it, you’ll see). The following day he sent a picture of his injury to his mate (and CEO of Hublot) Jean-Claude Biver with a note saying "See what people will do for a Hublot". Great story by itself, but you can guess where this is going. In next to no time at all, Hublot (with Bernie’s agreement) ran an ad using the picture and note from his mugging. Again, disruptive to the category (and society) but consistent to the brand.
I’m not pretending for a second all this means you’re about to take out another mortgage a buy one of their watches. But if you had the cash and you were in the market - they’d stand out far more than their competitors. And that’s the point.
What can I do?
Don’t worry - no one is expecting you to run ads featuring abused pensioners. Although that would definitely be disruptive, it probably wouldn’t be consistent with anything else you do.
So you have two things to do:
Be disruptive
This starts by understand your competitors and your market. Research, find the gaps in the market and pitch yourself to your consumers in a meaningful way your competitors can’t. They need to perceive you as different, so use your research and test to make sure they do. Remember you don’t have to be first (or you’re last!), but you do have to be different. By being truly different you’ll create your own sub category and you’ll definitely be first in that.
Be consistent
Use your unique brand positioning to guide everything your company does. From products, to customer service to the little customer touch points. The easiest way is to use your brand assets and codifying errrrything. That’s such an easy one to do, you’d be mad not to employ it.
Sound too challenging? Give us a call and let us take your six. We’ll find your enemy… I mean, competitor’s weak points and help you exploit them.