Everybody talks about differentiation as the silver bullet in branding: "Stand out from the pack!", "Be unique!", "When others zig, you zag!" But there's more to the equation. Now I’m not a fan of cigarettes…but the lesson Phillip Morris offers us in the distinction between "being different" and "being different + relevant" is too valuable to pass up.
In 1924, Phillip Morris launches the Marlboro brand as the first ladies’ cigarette. Like all women’s cigarettes, it had a filter – but Marlboro was the only brand that had "A Beauty Tip" a printed red band around its filter to hide lipstick stains. For 29 straight years, Phillip Morris put their considerable marketing muscle behind this clearly differentiated brand…and for 29 straight years Marlboro never once reached even one percent market share.
Fast forward to 1953. Scientists have just established that smoking tobacco causes lung cancer. Now, male smokers need a filter cigarette. But, instead of launching a new brand touting the cancer risk reducing properties of a filter (a slippery slope if there ever was one) advertising legend Leo Burnett simply changes Marlboro’s sex. That is, he makes it cool for men to smoke an established filter cigarette. So cool, in fact, that Marlboro becomes the leading cigarette brand within a year or two – a distinction it has now had for over five decades...currently commanding about a 42% (Forty-Two!) percent share of the global cigarette market. In short, Leo Burnett made the brand differentiation relevant.
Is your brand’s difference relevant...or is it just different? Your share of your market – and how hard you have to work for it – might be a telling indicator.
Is your brand’s difference relevant...or is it just different? Your share of your market – and how hard you have to work for it – might be a telling indicator.
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