Stop Trying To Be The Same, Be Different

I can remember when I was young how most of the so called “cool kids” where the ones that had the “It” brands. At that time Nike, Quicksilver, Stussy, Tommy Hilfiger Airwalks and Timberlands were all considered “in” by different groups of kids. Wearing an off brand or having shoes from Payless was not seen as cool and often got you made fun of. There was definitely a need to keep up with the Joneses just to fit in. However, this wasn’t always possible as being able to buy my own clothes as a kid was difficult seeing how I was completely dependent on my mother for money.

I was thirteen when the Air Jordan XII first came out. At $135 a pair in 1996 (Edler, 2013), there was no way that my mother could afford those or any of the other expensive items the “cool kids” had without enduring a severe financial hardship. Especially seeing how over that summer alone I grew five and a half inches and went up two sizes in shoes. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t want any of these items. I wanted to just keep up with the Joneses, fit in and be like everyone else. What I didn’t know at the time was that it is better to be different than to be like everyone else. Trying to keep up with everyone else does not allow you to display your originality and what is special about yourself. This need to keep up with the Joneses still exists and is extremely prevalent in creative spaces of marketing departments around the globe.

Click (2013) discussed the potential dangers of companies following the same marketing strategies of their competitors. Often time’s companies feel they need to start using a specific social media platform just because a competitor starts using it (Click, 2013). This type of thinking is counterproductive from what companies should be doing which is differentiating themselves from their competition (Click, 2013). There is no guarantee that implementing similar marketing techniques will yield the desired results (Click, 2013).

Consumers can sniff out lazy or copycat marketing a mile away. Being authentic and original is the new wave and key to marketing. With all the claims of “Fake news” left and right consumers will not listen to messages they feel they have seen before or deem unauthentic. My advice to companies would be to just be “different”. If companies are not sure what it means to be different, they can just click the Vimeo link below and take a look at some of our friends from Tonopah, Nevada.

Tonopah, NV https://vimeo.com/37213316

Click, L. (2013, July 8). Why Keeping Up With the Joneses Kills Your Marketing Efforts. flybluekite.com. Retrieved from https://flybluekite.com/keeping-up-with-joneses-kills-your-marketing-efforts/

Edler, B. (2013, July 1). The Complete History of the Air Jordans I – XX8. Complex.com. Retrieved from https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2013/07/air-jordan-complete-history-from-i-xx8/air-jordan-xii

Vimeo.com (2018). Commercial Kings – Tonopah, NV.Vimeo.com. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/37213316