e-marketingclass article 2: Differentiate Or Die

This article, which comes from Forbes.com, discusses how products are becoming more and more similar in the consumers’ eye, because they are not taking the time to truly differentiate themselves. Jack Trout, president of marketing at consulting firm Trout and Powers, points out how in a book he had written in 2000, Differentiate or die, told companies that in order to be successful they have to differentiate themselves from their competition, and suggestions on how to do this. Trout’s advice has been taken by many companies, but not all. He sites Coca-cola verses Pepsi as an example. Coca-cola has had a drop in sales because they have given up a lot of profit by trying to target a large population instead of a segment. He uses the fact that if Coca-cola would have differentiated themselves instead of trying to invent many new soft drinks and becoming overly diversified with everything from Coke to Diet Coke, to Cherry Coke and most recently Coke Zero, and just positioned them as a drink for more mature cola drinkers, instead of chasing everybody, they could have stopped Pepsi from becoming as large as they are today.

This article is important for marketers because it is an example of how having too wide of a target market and not being able to differentiate yourself from your competition. A company needs to look at itself and define a definite target market based on how they want to position themselves to the world. If they fail to do this, it could lead to a loss of profits, and the company loosing the strength in its name and image. Also, by marketing not differentiating the company enough, it could leave the company open to a greater loss, new competition coming in and taking its customers away. Market penetration could be easier for a company depending its size, the strength of its name and image, and how loyal its customers are. For a well established global company such as Coca-cola, it would be much harder to take away its customers, than it would be for a smaller, less established company, but it is possible if the company, no matter its size or brand name, stretches itself out too thin trying to be too many things to too many people at once. It’s a marketer’s job to notice when this starts to happen, and try to help the company reorganize itself and take steps towards reaching its primary target audience(s), before it looses them completely.