Why is most marketing designed to make a company NOT stand out in any meaningful way?

I mean, do you ever feel that marketing is stuck in some kind of déjà vu loop? A loop in which nothing rises above the rest, and everyone's repeatedly using the same buzzwords and gimmicks to sell the same thing?

Brands just merge into one another. You can't tell their products apart anymore, and the marketing is all rotten and dull and irrelevant. In the end, you just tune out, fast forward or find another screen to look at. Does that sound familiar?

I think a big part of the problem is that most businesses are afraid—of themselves.

They're afraid because they don't know who they are.

They're afraid because they don't like who they are.

They're afraid because, if the truth got out, their customers wouldn't like who they are.

They're afraid because they'd much rather be like one of their competitors.

So, instead of showing themselves, they hide. Mostly, they hide behind meaningless buzzwords and clichés. The same ones everyone else is hiding behind. And they're happy—as long as they don't have to show any of their own personality or character or values. As long as they don't have to do anything truly original themselves.

You end up with a dizzying din of marketing that, despite all the individual voices, seems like a single voice saying exactly the same thing, over and over again.

That makes it very hard for someone to pick you out and form a bond with you. They can't really hear you or see you.

So, just because another company is successful with its messaging or spec sheet or activities (or at appear to be, at least), being a copycat isn't a good idea.

Instead, be you.

—Roger—

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