Different-itation

"Differentiate or die" - thanks to Al Ries, we are scared to death, in case we are the same as others...

The previous weekend, I was spending some time on Broadway before Mamma Mia starts. As i was walking down the overly enthusiastic and crowded streets, my urge to get a chocolate was triggered, thanks to the HUUUGE M&M World Screen, displaying loads and loads of chocolate. I spent almost half an hour in the store, without touching any chocolate packs...everything was in the store...i could find M&M pjymas, slippers, coffee mugs, all the things that i do not need at all...after a while being frustrated, i left the shop...and stopped by at a hotel with a lounge overlooking Broadway...

I wanted to spend some 'high quality' time in this lobby, before i go to the show. Coincidentally, the lounge was over-looking Broadway and especially to the M&M World that frustrated me, with their real lack of chocolate offer...Being hypnosised by the colors of the M&M mega, man eater screen, my eyes met the competitor brand, Hershey's...yes, they do have a shop next door...Definitely there is a chocolate makers' economic cluster on Broadway:-) Hershey's motto read 'Hershey...Chocolate Factory' exactly this is where I should have been...They are all about chocolate...how about M&M??? What were they about? At least i thought that they were about chocolate...having thought a bit...i had an 'A-HA' moment...(as good as it gets, being jet-lagged)

Why are the people still going into M&M, if Hershey's - "the real chocolate factory" was next door...."Obviously":
Hershey's is about chocolate...M&M is about the M&M World....the whole experience around eating and more than that, sharing the chocolate with friends:-) M&M is fullfilling a social need, while Hershey's is fullfiling a sugar need:-)

Long live "Differentiation"!...in the end, both brands survived to this day, thanks to their ability to position very differently for the consumers...the consumer does not need to think, but choose amongst two distinct value suggestions...

If Julius Ceasar would live in our century, his most popularly quoted saying would have been 'Branding, branding and branding:-)'