Yesterday my husband and I were watching The Office (my favorite show) and we saw a commercial for Gatorade. The whole commercial was about “it”. At the end, you realize “it” is Gatorade. The problem? About a month ago we were watching a much more innovative commercial about “it” from eBay. Opps…it seems that eBay and Gatorade both seem to think they have what “it” takes.

A good reminder to us all to differentiate ourselves from our competition and stand out. It is easy to think of examples of businesses who all have the same marketing messages: realtors who give you a free home value report, mortgage companies who offer you “friendly service,” stores that offer you a “no-hassle return policy.” Maybe these were innovative marketing messages some time ago, but it is time for these companies to come up with something new. It is time to think of how to differentiate yourself if you look around, and others are saying the same thing about their business as you say about yours.

I think the Capital One No Hassle credit card does a great job of differentiating themselves from the competition in a cut-throat almost commodity industry. They have used their commercials to illustrate to us visually what happens to us when we use another credit card. We get hurt by pillagers, always are told “no”, never get to talk to real person, and lack the protection of a guardian angel.

Make “it” a point to differentiate your marketing message.