Stop blindly accepting commoditization.
A majority of marketing strategies fail due to a fundamental misconception…
That the conditions we see in “our market” today are parameters that dictate the terms of the future.
As a result, we say things like:
• “We’re going to digitize agriculture.”
• “We are digitally transforming farming.”
What we really mean to say is, “We believe that the current way of doing things is the best way to do those things, so we’re going to slap some technology on your old processes and charge you through the nose for it.”
Or “We’re just like everyone else, but just a little better, faster, or cheaper…”
Most of us approach our markets as if they will never change; we assume demand for the problem we are solving. We forecast the present into the future.
And as a result, most marketing misses its mark, and our products become commodities - locked in a perpetual race to the bottom.
This is an entirely avoidable situation.
Products become commodities when we stop telling stories and succumb to undifferentiated competition. When we project the future as inevitable - just make the most of it.
Commodities occur when we force products into the unnatural position of leading our entire commercial approach, to speak for themselves, independent of any category design.
Commodity products are created when we fall in love with the product we make and lose sight of the problems we solve.
We fail to realize that without the problem, there is no need for our solution.
Great companies, on the other hand, fall in love with solving customer problems.
They define their customer's problem, design the solution, and start dominating the new category they’ve built.
Stop accepting commoditization; start telling stories that matter.
Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.
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