ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands

With a zag, you can start a new category that your customers, your employees, your partners—even your competitors—will help you build.

notably unhelpful for encouraging innovation. This is because radical differentiation doesn’t test well in focus groups.

25 years from now your company is wiped out. Now, sit down and write your company’s obituary. What would you like posterity to say about you?

Radical differentiation, on the other hand, is about finding a whole new market space you can own and defend, thereby delivering profits over years instead of months.

since people now have a choice, they’re choosing to spend more time on the Web, where communication is more like a conversation than a sales pitch. They’re also listening more to their friends, in a return to the word-of-mouth culture

Today 92% of people skip the commercials on their recorded programs. How has the industry responded? By hitting further below the belt—sneaking advertising into editorial copy, television content, movies, and events, all under the euphemistic heading of product placement.

THE BARRIERS TO COMPETITION HAVE MOVED FROM THE PHYSICAL TO THE INTELLECTUAL, AND FROM WITHIN THE COMPANY’S CONTROL TO OUTSIDE IT.

“follow your bliss”

The first step in building a brand is to look inside and see where the raw energy will come from.

On the chart, the “good” axis can include any attributes that customers typically value: quality workmanship, good aesthetics, low price, high functionality, ease of use, speed, power, style, and so on. These are the qualities on which most offerings compete. The “different” axis is for any attributes that make an offering, well—different.