Remarkable
or not?

One of my strongest beliefs in business is that great businesses focus very tightly on a narrow market and then on how they can stand out as really really special for that market.

You can read more about my metaphor for targeting a narrow market here TAXI, and I got the 'remarkable' idea from one of the best and most successful business books ever Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable : Seth Godin

It's actually quite difficult to do and there are many businesses that struggle to do so. To illustrate the point, and with apologies to my friends in the legal sector, the ones that seem most challenged are those in professional services.  How many lawyers and accountants have you seen trying to make themselves attractive by saying things broadly like:

• ‘we care about our customers’

• ‘we’re nice people’

• ‘we deliver responsive customer service’

• ‘we’re experts’

• ‘we’ve done the same for someone else’

• ‘we’ve been around a long time’

Sadly most law firms will be trying to convey the same message (whether true or not).

And I’m afraid rather than share helpful tips as I usually do on this site, I thought it would be fun to empathise further with the difficulty of the challenge we business leaders face by sharing a superb spoof video that illustrates superbly how even the big brands with mega budgets struggle to be distinctive.