While being recruited to a company years ago, a leader there said, “We want to be pioneers and innovators.”

A couple months into the job, that same leader responded to my strategic recommendations with, “Show me 5-7 other companies in our industry who have proven these would work, or find out what they do and we can just do those things better.”

When I launched my own PR, brand marketing, and creative business after that, I created it as a virtual agency of one, with the ability to scale according to each client’s needs, with only senior-level talent for everything from strategy to execution, with no overhead. And I often found myself invited to pitch against the biggest traditional agencies in the market … Because I offered the polar opposite of what they did.

For strong branding and positioning, differentiation is the point. Differentiation guides the strategy. Differentiation makes the difference.

Yes, following is easier, safer, and and sometimes still a path to profitability. But you can’t be a leader in your category by positioning yourself as a follower.