The Lead

Think Excellence, Not Difference
Positioning Strategies for Success
ERIC M. MORGENSTERN, APR, FELLOW PRSA, PRESIDENT AND CEO
MORNINGSTAR COMMUNICATIONS
Executive Overview

In recent years, marketing professionals have focused their strategies around
market differentiation.

However, in many industries, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to
differentiate themselves from their competitors. What's more, the chief concern of
customers -- whether they be consumers shopping in a retail store or businesses relying
on the advice of a consulting firm -- is not differentiation at all. Instead, it is "Who can
most effectively fulfill my specific needs while meeting my standards?" or "Who is my
best choice?"

For many customers, different isn't necessarily better -- it's just different.
The only solid strategy for meeting these ever-increasing customer expectations is one
focused on excellence. This means if you manage a company's marketing or public relations
programs, you want your company's customers to perceive it as excellent, instead of
simply different from the rest of the pack. Similarly, if you work for a public relations or
marketing agency, you want your clients to be perceived as excellent -- rather than
different -- by their customers.

This proposed approach -- Think Excellence, Not Difference -- is not another
marketing theory that has little connection to the real business world. It is, simply, a smart
marketing method communicators can use to position forward-thinking companies as
market leaders.

Leading companies can no longer prosper by continually positioning themselves
against their competitors. Instead, their continued success depends upon convincing
customers that they are a reliable resource for excellence.
There are four steps to the Think Excellence, Not Difference method. They are:

• Determining the end customer's definition of excellence
• Evaluating how well your client, or company, is currently meeting
those expectations
• Designing a measurable program that will meet or exceed the expectations of
your customers, and
• Leveraging your excellence to attract other, similar customers or clients.

An organization can measure its immediate success with this method by how well it is
retaining its customers, its rate of revenue increases, routine client satisfaction studies and
its profitability. However, the sustainability of an excellence mind-set will ultimately
Think Excellence, Not Difference depend on how a customer describes the organization to others in the marketplace. What an organization's customers say about the organization to others represents the true
embodiment of that organization's brand.