Product Description
"Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith, and perseverance to create a brand."-David Ogilvy
In today's ultra-competitive world, the average supermarket has 40,000 brand items on its shelves. Car shoppers can wander through the showrooms of over twenty automobile makers. For marketers, differentiating products today is more challenging than at any time in history yet it remains at the heart of successful marketing. More importantly, it remains the key to a company's survival.
In Differentiate or Die, bestselling author Jack Trout doesn't beat around the bush. He takes marketers to task for taking the easy route too often, employing high-tech razzle-dazzle and sleight of hand when they should be working to discover and market their product's uniquely valuable qualities. He examines successful differentiation initiatives from giants like Dell Computer, Southwest Airlines, and Wal-Mart to smaller success stories like Streit's Matzoh and Connecticut's tiny Trinity College to determine why some marketers succeed at differentiating themselves while others struggle and fail.
More than just a collection of marketing success stories, however, Differentiate or Die is an in-depth exploration of today's most successful differentiation strategies. It explains what these strategies are, where and when they should be applied, and how they can help you carve out your own image in a crowded marketplace. Marketing executives in all types of organizations, regardless of size, can learn how to achieve product differentiation through strategies including:
* Revisiting the U.S.P.
Rosser Reeves's classic unique selling proposition approach, updated for today's marketplace
* Positioning
Understanding how the mind works in the differentiating process
* Owning an Idea
Techniques to seize a differentiating idea, dramatize it, and make it your own
* Competition
How to use differentiating ideas against your competitors in the marketplace
Consumers today are faced with an explosion of choices. In this environment, distinctive product attributes are quickly copied by competitors, perceived by consumers to be minimal, or both. Still, those who fail to differentiate their product or service in the mind of the consumer won't stand a chance.
Differentiate or Die outlines the many ways you can achieve differentiation. It also warns how difficult it is to achieve differentiation by being creative, cheap, customer oriented, or quality driven things that your competitors can do as well.
Praise for Differentiate or Die
"Another great book by the king of positioning!"-John Schnatter, CEO, Papa John's International
"Differentiate or Die differentiates itself on the groaning marketing bookshelf with its lucid prose, its clear vision of the future marketplace . . . and its sensible solutions for surviving the frenzied competition we're sure to find there."-Dan Rather, CBS News
"What I like about Differentiate or Die is the book's emphasis on the power of logic, simplicity, and clarity-getting to the essence of a problem. In Silicon Valley, attributes like that can make the difference between having lunch and being lunch."-Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Trout and Rivkin marvelously illustrate that differentiation is the cornerstone of successful marketing." -Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing,
Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
"We've built our business by being first-and executing best. Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin are doing the same, delivering the timely, powerful insights that will drive tomorrow's marketing strategies. A must read for anyone looking to win in an unforgiving competitive marketplace."-Mike Ruettgers, CEO, EMC Corporation
"Dotcom executives must learn the lessons of Differentiate or Die. If they don't, I pity their investors."-Aaron Cohen, CEO, Concrete Media; Co-Founder, Bolt.com

Amazon.com Review
There are no two ways about it with Jack Trout. Either you've got a product or service that you can say is different, or you don't have much at all. In today's global marketplace and at its lightning-fast rate of change, there's no point in inventing and presenting a product only to sit back and hope that consumers everywhere will discover its greatness. It's not simply about what you or your product can do, it's about what you do differently from everyone else. Coauthors Trout and Steve Rivkin say it all in their no-holds-barred title, Differentiate or Die.

A disciple of the marketing guru Rosser Reeves, who introduced the concept of the "unique selling proposition," Trout relays his vision of what can help you differentiate in blunt, tell-it-like-it-is prose. First he breaks the bad news that product quality, advertising creativity, price advantage, and breadth of product line are rarely successful ways to differentiate your business. Consumers expect the best quality, he says; they don't think it's a bonus. In the same vein, your competitor can slash prices just as quickly as you. After dismissing these common marketing techniques as futile, Trout concentrates on which differentiating ideas will set you apart from the pack: Being first (and staying there), owning a discernible attribute, having a heritage, becoming the preference of a particular consumer group, or even being the most recent arrival in a product arena are just some of these useful differentiates. Though the book's fast and quippy narrative style may leave some readers looking for more substance behind his adamant assertions, Trout's recommendations act as inspirational spurts of energy. A slim manual packed with punchy points, Differentiate or Die won't take you long to read but could make a lasting--you guessed it--difference to the success of your business. --S. Ketchum

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 40 reviews)

Did not fact check!

Do not waste your time with this book. Initially, it looks intriguing because of the amount of business examples that they use. However, as I delved further into the book, it just became clear, example after example, that they just simply did not fact check their findings. It's pretty sad when a 2nd edition, 2008, is just simply this out of touch. For example, they talk about category killers, and call out Baby Superstore, and talk specifically how Babies R Us is putting pressure on their earnings. Babies R Us bought Baby Superstore back in the late 90's! Come on, do your fact checking. Want another example? Well, later in the book they talk about convergence, and state that products that do more than they should are quick to die, and specifically call out the early PDA's. Have they heard that they've morphed into smart phones such as the wildly successful iPhone? There are more examples than this - it was just hard for me to believe their other cases when there was just so many inaccuracies throughout. I'd fire their publisher for hiring that fact checker.
August 29, 2008

Differentiate or die.

This is definitely compulsory reading for anyone hoping to survive in todays cluttered market where the consumer is bombarded with similar products!!!!
May 20, 2008

Marketers read this or die

Jack Trout is probably the most entertaining author of marketing books. This one not only entertains, it lays down the fundamentals of differentiating in the marketplace and dives deep into it. Essential reading for all marketers.
December 05, 2007

Tactically sound, despite the hype

Today markets are driven by customer choice, and there are more possible product choices than ever before for the customer. Companies that fail to address the whims of the marketplace will not survive. It is more important that ever before to differentiate your product from its competition. According to the authors, companies must address differentiation in three ways:
1. If you ignore your uniqueness and try to be everything to everybody, you will undermine what differentiates you from the competition.
2. If you ignore changes in the market, your differentiation can become less important.
3. If you stay in the shadow of your competitors, without establishing your "uniqueness" you will always be weak.

The authors then outline four steps to successfully differentiate yourself from competitors:
· Step 1: Make sense in context. Your message must make sense within the context of your market category. Start first with a "snapshot" of customer perceptions about yourself and your competitors.
· Step 2: Find the differentiating idea. There are many ways to set your company apart from the competition. However you differentiate yourself, set the difference up as a benefit to the customer.
· Step 3: Have credentials. Your claims to the customer must be real and believable. You should be able to demonstrate the difference to the customer. That demonstration becomes your credentials.
· Step 4: Communicate your difference. You need to build a strong perception of your product in the market. Every aspect of your public communication should emphasize your difference.
March 04, 2006

Too simplistic to rest business success primarily on uniqueness

I work for a book summary company. One of the books selected for summary is this.

In today's proliferation of products, what sets a product or idea apart is its distinctness or uniqueness. And authors Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin focus on the idea that unless companies strive to make their product or concept interestingly different and evolve a unique identity, their business is bound to bite the dust. The book reiterates the need for companies to promote the `unique selling proposition' or the USP in their product in order to stand out from the `also-rans'. Indeed Jack Trout, who had pioneered the concept of `positioning' which has become the fad word in the ad world today, makes blunt assertions on the common practices adopted by most companies to gain that competitive edge over others. He dismisses the well-entrenched marketing ploys such as stress on product quality, use of creative advertising, competitive pricing, and unveiling range of product line as futile exercises that could prove unsuccessful in the long term. To him, being a pioneer, having a distinct attribute and peerless heritage, cultivating particular consumer group (s) or being the first or new arrival are the features that single out a product from the cluttering crowd. The author provides success stories alongside some others that failed. It seems rather too simplistic to build the entire logic of success on a single attribute of uniqueness or distinctness. Indeed while there is no gainsaying that exclusivity undoubtedly lifts a product, there are other concomitant factors, which are too real and important to be ignored, for ensuring the long term success of a product. Nonetheless, this slim book could be an interesting read for gaining additional inputs to ensure success in business.

February 28, 2006

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