Competition from around the world has grown at a frenetic pace. Consumers are flooded with products and images, sales pitches and gimmicks. It can be equally confusing and overwhelming.

So how can you create a brand strategy for your company without alienating customers and best prospects? According to marketing trends guru Jack Trout, author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, you must look beyond product differences because competitors are able to quickly and cheaply copy existing products. He even wrote a book on the subject: Differentiate or Die. “There are other ways of separating yourself that don’t require a dramatic product difference,” he points out. “You have to look at leadership, preference, attributes.

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“You can take ownership of an idea,” Trout continues. “BMW driving. Volvo safety. You can differentiate by how the product is made. Sony’s Trinitron. The Cadillac North Star engine. You can do it by leadership. Merrill Lynch — more resources, better answers. Nike should use leadership — they don’t — because the psychology is people buy what other people buy. Next generation is important. Advil advanced medicine for pain, and they promoted themselves as the new stuff, as opposed to aspirin and Tylenol. You can do it by preference — the stuff that hospitals use most. You can say it’s the fastest growing. When you’re hot, you can use it as a way to separate yourself. It gets you going.”

One differentiator that Trout celebrates is the “originator,” the company that comes up with the first of a certain kind of product, like Philadelphia Cream Cheese. “People think that because you are the originator, you know more, you are the specialist,” he says. “The future of marketing will be all about specialization. Being better at one thing will be more important than being good at a lot of things.”

Which companies are tripping over themselves? “I don’t like Volvo getting into convertibles because they aren’t safe,” Trout says. “I don’t like Porsche getting into SUVs. It’s not that they can’t sell a hot SUV, but it undermines their sports car position. In a way, what they could do damage to is their long-term position as the premier sports car [manufacturer]. I don’t like Mercedes making these cheaper and cheaper cars. A blue Prell, that’s dumb. Prell is green. These people never stop tinkering. They just spin out more variations. My feeling is it undermines what the brand stands for. You end up cannibalizing yourself to some degree. It doesn’t attract new business, it confuses things.”

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