Beware Things That Are Promoted As Different. Different Is More Likely Worse, Not Better
For every good decision that will make something better there are hundreds of possible bad decisions that will make it worse
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
New, Improved & Different Sell Products
Back in the 1920s, Madison Avenue guru Claude Hopkins, who some dubbed the “greatest ad man who ever lived” said that two of the most powerful words in marketing were “new” and “improved.”
And like many powerful concepts “new” and “improved” have been vastly overworked, over used, and consequently, greatly misunderstood. Many people, maybe most people, automatically conflate “new” with “different” and “different” with “better.”
That’s a terrible, terrible mistake.
The Odds Of Different Being Wrong Are Very High
Here is a fundamental truth:
- For every right decision about how to do something that will make it better there are hundreds of possible wrong decisions that will make it worse.
The odds are hundreds to one that making something different will make it worse, not better.
Movies That Are Different
Hollywood is overflowing with people who assume that a film that is different will be better and thus more successful than one that is not. And they are all wrong.
Different is not necessarily entertaining. In fact, different is often the opposite of entertaining.
“Let’s make a movie about a couple’s painful divorce under the age-old tribal customs of the native people in the heart of Zambia. No one’s ever done that before.”
There is a reason for that. It would take a team with a thousand times more talent than yours to make that story even approach entertaining.
Statistically, different usually means worse
You could open a restaurant and serve meatloaf with chopped up shrimp inside instead of veal and Caesar dressing on top instead of ketchup, and that would be different, but it would not be better, or even good.
Why is different usually not better?
Every day there are hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of companies trying to think up ways to sell something. One of their go-to tools is to do make their product different.
Some of these people are stupid. Some have little talent. Some have no common sense. Some are uncreative. Some are talented but have bosses who are not. These people will screw it up and make something that is different but also is no better or even a little or a lot worse.
In June, 2019 I published a rant about products that are poorly designed.
Yes, Of Course There Are Talented People Trying To Improve Things
Yes, invariably a few people with intelligence, talent, and creativity will hit on at least one way to make something that’s already OK or even good a little better. But they will be outnumbered by the hordes of people who make it no better or even worse.
The Few Better Products Get Lost In The Tsunami Of Not-Better Products
At the end of the process a few truly better products will be released among a flood of not-better products, and the marketing industry will make it difficult for you to sort out one from the other.
Improved, Different Coffee
For example, coffee is a huge market because hundreds of millions of people consume it every single day, often several times per day. You can buy single-servings of major brands of coffee for about $.50/8 ounce cup.
People are now massively competing to make coffee different by adding mushrooms or turmeric or chocolate or collagen or combinations and permutations of the same to it. It’s new. It’s different. It is three times more expensive. Does any of that mean it’s better, leastwise THREE TIMES better?
If something is new and different and the Madison Avenue people can figure out a way, without any reliable evidence, to claim that it is better then they can sell it to people who automatically think that this new and different thing must be worth its two or three times higher price.
What Are The Odds?
Your chances of encountering something that is both different and better in proportion to its higher price are really, really small, while your chances of finding a restaurant, a film, a blender, a politician, a donut (ask me about the Japanese macha donut I wasted $3.50 on), a toaster oven or a cup of coffee that is both materially different and also better in proportion to its higher price are extremely low.
When and how does different actually become better?
First, the creative person or team behind the product has to know their craft.
Craft
Craft is different from talent, different from creativity, and different from intelligence.
Craft is knowing in your bones, in your physical or mental muscle memory, how to do something properly. Craft is exemplified by the studio musician who can pick up a $99 Walmart guitar and knock your socks off with an instant rendition of Johnny B. Goode.
Craft is the home cook who can make a terrific meatloaf, a beef stew, eggplant parm, bread pudding or apple pie without following any written recipes, who just instinctively knows to use a pinch of this and a smidgen of that.
Craft Alone Is Not Enough
But that craft needs to be married to talent, creativity, imagination and common sense.
At the age of 13 Picasso was admitted to the School of Fine Arts. He later attended Spain’s foremost art institute. Picasso could paint anything, landscapes, portraits, murals. His later work was not just “new” and “different.” It was built on a foundation of massive training, talent, hard work, creativity and craft.
Something may be new and different, but better requires more than that.
Better requires intelligence, talent, common sense, training, and craft. And all that in one place with the money and business talent to repeatedly deliver that product in quantity is extremely rare.
Beware the “new and different.”
— David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
