ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands

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.

successful zags usually test poorly with consumers before they’re launched. They fare pretty well on the “good” axis, but then attract so many negative comments on the “different” axis that their companies get nervous and reject them.

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

To delight customers so that MORE people buy MORE things for MORE years at a HIGHER price.

Using ethnographic research in which researchers move in with consumers to observe their habits firsthand, they uncover need states

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

Differentiation, the art of standing out from the competition, is not front-page news. What IS front-page news, in a world of extreme clutter, is that you need more than differentiation. You need RADICAL differentiation. The new rule: When everybody zigs, zag.

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

Instead, you have to find the spaces between the fielders. You have to find a zag.