To Be different, or Not To Be Different: Find Out What You Are

Posted by Greg Bond

June 26, 2008

If you were a fledgling company, or an old company with no image, what good what it do to play like everyone else in your category?

Online, I see so many me too sites. Company’s all have the same mantra, “We have huge clients, lots of money, and offices and examples. My client is bigger than your client.” To put the cherry on top, they say things like “We are unique, creative, and we can appeal to niche markets like minorities.” Seriously?

Unbelievable the shit these people spew, then proceed to log onto AOL mail, watch Sportscenter, and bitch about a windows bug that has popped up since they bought it. These people suck the life out of every orifice of my body. You really aren’t that different if you could so easily tune out the things that suck about your life. Mainstream people are really good about not looking for change but instead having it be so in there face, it isn’t really a change at all. If you aren’t willing to do a couple clicks to improve your life, what are you willing to do to make a change and be different? I can guarantee at those companies where people are different and have huge clients, that all their top level execs don’t have even an inclination of what being different is.

Things that you can say that will guarantee you permanent purgatory in the “not different” category, also known as the Dateline (or other-mainstream-news) mentioned this in a special last night and now I know it category:

“This damn popup comes up every time I start my computer!” - Google it
“[fill in the blank] doesn’t work, why doesn’t this work?” - Google it
“I found this awesome [fill in the blank] in the Yellow Pages.”
“[fill in the minority] would love this.”
“We need a viral video.”
“Kids love [blank].”
“Why txt message when I can just call you?”
“I just worked a 90 hour week.” - get a life
“We need a blogger to talk about our [fill in the product or service]“
“Young people know computers, we didn’t have computers growing up” - This applies to all electronics too
“We need to make an impression.” - How? What makes impressions.
“Think outside of the box.”
“I didn’t know that was possible on computers.”
etc.

To avoid being this mainstream asshole here are some tips:

Google first, ask questions later
Don’t overgeneralize populations of people
Realize you cannot just turn on web understanding, like you can just turn on your browser
Those aren’t just webpages, they are people
Get out of your house and turn off the TV
Seek trends and seek to understand why they are occurring
You don’t create trends, you just start being different
Don’t use lame business jargon, ever
The tech guy already thinks you are an idiot, prove him wrong
Understand that different channels of communication begets different communication, I say different things, in different ways, depending on what I am using

Stop talking about your big client, and start talking about who you are and what you stand for, otherwise you are still exactly like everyone else. Follow this and save my sanity. Please, I beg you.