Standing out is the most basic element of branding. Getting noticed is the spark that leads to brand awareness – and maybe even convinces someone to buy your stuff.

This is called “differentiation”. Here is a definition straight from Wikipedia: In marketing, product differentiation (also known simply as “differentiation”) is the process of distinguishing a product or offering from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors’ products as well as a firm’s own product offerings.

Differentiation in the glory days of branding meant buying “breadth” – simply buying enough advertising and promotion to create a brand. All it took was money and a decent ad agency. There are hundreds of examples of brands that were created this way. The irony is that very few of them were actually good products. Case in point: harken back to the crapmobiles that American car companies were pushing in the 80s and 90s.

In the past few years, three massive changes have taken place that have stood marketing on its collective ear:

• Media fragmentation permanently changed “appointment television”
• Social media made everyone hyper-connected
• Over-commoditization created an over-supply of just about everything

These 3 trends – and their ripple effect – changed the definition and purpose of differentiation. Now, differentiation starts with actually being different. Godin calls it a “purple cow”. I call it bacon. Regardless of the metaphor, you have to make or do something that has “wow” built right in.

A few modern brands get this: Ford, Apple, Google, Zappos, Ikea to name a few. But many brands are still using the lens that the sheer act of creating an ad or promotion is differentiation. Examples:

1. Verizon’s Xoom – Part of the ever growing “pad” market, Verizon’s ads for the Xoom make little to no differentiation with it’s #1 competitor, the iPad. The ads show the same features and benefits as other pads on the market – albeit, presented with lots of explosions and cool graphics. Maybe the Xoom is different and better than the iPad, but you’d never know it from the commercials.
2. Yahoo Mail – Yahoo is now spending ad dollars on promoting their e-mail program. Maybe they are going after the straggler/laggard market, but the language of the ad is straight out of 1999.
3. Bank of America – Their ads are particularly annoying because they promote features that other banks have had for years: on-line banking, bill pay, better ATMs, etc.
4. State Farm – I’m sure State Farm is full of good people, but their new campaign of young, hip people singing the State Farm jingle has zero differentiation. Maybe the message is that State Farm is available in case you need help, but that is lost in all of the gimmickry.

Keep in mind that these are not poorly produced ads. They are well-shot with high quality production. The problem is the mindset behind the ads. Competition for minds and dollars is an intense as ever. So if you decide to spend money on promoting your stuff, at least give your marketing people and ad agency something to work with.