“Great brands don’t chase customers; customers chase great brands.”

Gary Friedman, CEO Restoration Hardware

If we learned anything during the past couple of decades of digital disruption it should have been this: Even very good is no longer good enough.

In a world where media, information, product choice, distribution access, delivery convenience and connection are no longer scarce, to be anything less than remarkable is often to be ignored. If you’re the slightly taller or faster or better looking cow hoping to stand out among a large herd of pretty similar, run of the mill cows, prepare to be disappointed.

If the only thing that allows you to grab customers attention is to shout louder than the other guys and seduce promiscuous shoppers with deep discounts, you’re in the bribery business, not the memorable brand building business.

Too many retailers (or organizations in just about any industry) seem to think that if they are trying to play catch up with the companies that are growing market share and forging loyal, profitable relationships with the sector’s best customers all they have to do is get meaningfully better. Yet better is not the same as good. And it’s certainly not remarkable.

Customers don’t leave the brands they love for merely better.

If you’re a 7 or 8 chasing a 10, a slightly better version of mediocre isn’t going to cut it.

You’re going to have to go to 11.

 

This post leverages material from my bestselling book Remarkable Retail, which will be released in an expanded and completely revised 2nd edition on April 13th. Pre-order now at Amazon or anywhere else great books are sold. We also explored the concepts of becoming more “Memorable” on a recent episode of the Remarkable Retail podcast.