Have you ever wondered if weaknesses or challenges are always a bad thing? Recently, while providing a personal branding course to a group of talented young individuals, I was asked a difficult question: What should we do with our weaknesses or challenges? As in, what if we aren't the most beautiful, eloquent, or fastest person in our field? Should we hide them away or try to cover them up?
To answer this question, I introduced the concept of turning a disadvantage into a difference - not an advantage, mind you. Let me give you an example. There's a young woman who builds websites for companies in Israel. However, she doesn't actually live in Israel. Instead, she works from a distant and exotic country, which might seem like a disadvantage at first glance.
But, what if we look at it differently? Think about it: if you were looking for a professional to build your website, you could choose any of the thousands of talented people in Israel. Or, you could choose this website builder who lives in a unique and faraway place, with an atmosphere different from anything else. It might even be an advantage for some customers, especially if they want something new and interesting.
Of course, it's not based on the product itself - it doesn't necessarily mean that this website builder is better than the others. However, that's what branding is all about. This particular website builder can say, "I build excellent sites, just like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, I have a special attitude and atmosphere that can interest customers who connect to it."
I know what you're thinking: "What's the secret? How do we turn our disadvantages into a difference?" Don't worry, I won’t tell you to "turn the lemon into lemonade" or "turn the disadvantage into an advantage." That's just annoying, right?
Instead, you can try two mental exercises: First, identify your biggest disadvantage. It could be that you're far away from your target market, your production time is longer than your competitors, or your products aren't very interesting. Below are some examples.
Then, answer this question: "How does this disadvantage indicate that I am special and different in the landscape? How can my target audience connect with me precisely because of this disadvantage?"
Let's go back to the website builder. Her differentiating statement could be, "I'm a professional who builds websites, but my disadvantage is that I'm in a distant country. But, voila! This means I'm special and different because it creates an exotic and cool atmosphere that some clients might appreciate." And just like that, differentiation achieved!
Here are two more examples that prove how disadvantages can become a winning differentiator:
Guinness beer takes 119.5 seconds to pour perfectly from the tap. Customers complained that it took too long, and bartenders started pouring faster, ruining the experience. So, Guinness launched a series of advertisements with the tagline "Good things come to those who wait," positioning itself as a brand of wonderful taste and attention to quality and tradition.
Shreddies is a cracker company that realized it had nothing new to offer regarding product innovation. So, they created a massive ad campaign with the same square cracker, rotated 45 degrees to create a diamond shape. They even launched a combo edition with square and diamond-shaped crackers, which are essentially the same crackers! And guess what? The campaign won prizes and increased sales because it made customers fall in love with the product all over again.
