Financial marketing

Differentiate your Differentiation Strategy

20th May 2014

Michael Porter tells us that, “We need to start moving into the next phase, which is one of strategy, the phase in which individual banks make choices about how they are going to be distinctive, how they’re going to be unique, how they’re going to set themselves apart.”

However, scanning through the advertisements of financial organisations in trade magazines from both sides of the Atlantic, I couldn’t help but notice that most organisations are claiming exactly the SAME attributes as differentiators within their respective journals.

Statements such as: “What differentiates us is our people, service, flexibility and innovation,” peppering journals, brochures and web sites seem to me to be having the opposite effect to what these companies intended. Ironically, it follows that the greater the organisational focus on these commonly held attribute areas, the more similar these companies must appear in the eyes of their potential customers.

To achieve long-term success in today’s customer-driven marketplace, you first need to differentiate your differentiation strategy!