Welcome to Compositions, James DeKoven's column about brand communications. This time around:

- The illusion of difference
- Repeat the riff
- Album of the month

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The illusion of difference
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Being my own boss for nearly 12 years, I’m a bit out of touch with what goes down in the corporate world. I only hear things from my more gainfully employed friends. Like how some companies only hire graduates of certain universities.

Of course, I’m not smart enough to comprehend the rationale of this hiring policy. Come on - I’m an alumnus of humble U.C Santa Barbara, where students avoid actual study and just go to the beach, eat cheap burritos and listen to Peter Tosh (but somehow the professors still manage to win Nobel prizes.)

But here’s my kind-of educated guess about what those hiring managers think: only at schools of the caliber of, say, a Stanford or Yale, can one acquire a specific type of knowledge or gain the ability to conjure insight unavailable to others. By offering wisdom passed through secret underground tunnels from ancient societies, these institutions of higher learning teach dimensions of thought that have been scientifically proven to be impossible to attain at other universities (and certainly no “colleges”.)

In brief: although the schools don’t always market themselves as different, those hiring managers BELIEVE that those schools are different.

And to that I say BS.

Before moving forward, understand that this isn’t a rant about my inferiority complex of going to a school that didn’t even have a football team.

And I’m not criticizing those upper echelon universities or their graduates. I would’ve gladly attended Duke or Swarthmore if they accepted slacker southern California kids with 2.6 high school GPAs.

I’m simply illustrating how “difference” is often an illusion. Just look at how companies falsely use “difference” as a marketing tool.

Fact is, most organizations that say “we’re different” only do so because, in reality, there’s an absence of a difference.

When looking for a competitive advantage, someone will suggest, “How about we just say we’re different?” Their site will have an “Our Difference” section with sentences that begin, “We’re different because….”

As we’d say in Isla Vista, good try bro.

Here’s the problem:

1) You’re probably not different – you just think you are.

2) Saying that you’re unique can do more harm than good. Once you make that claim you raise the question of why you’re different – and raise the possibility of being exposed.

3) “Being different” isn’t at the top of most clients’ buying criteria. No one sits around thinking, I really need a different type of hair stylist, I really need different type of accountant, I really need a different type of management consulting firm. People buy because they like you, you’re a good listener and you fit their needs. They’re convinced that you’re reliable and will deliver what you’ve promised.

For the businesses that actually are different, don’t fear. Take heart with a key lesson I learned during my lazy, creative-writing-major-days at UCSB: Show, don’t tell.

People will notice you’re different not because you say so, but as a result of what they experience.

So instead of literally telling why you’re different, show your competitive advantage through design concepts, content strategy, tone of voice, the user experience, how quickly you respond to email inquires, what you include in your proposals, the type of questions you ask, the little extra that you give, even the paper choice for printed materials.

Remember to show, not tell. It’s not so difficult. Heck, even graduates from UCSB can pull it off.

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Repeat the riff
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Legendary rock songs like “Sunshine of Your Love”, “Purple Haze”, “You Really Got Me” and “Back in Black” have one thing in common: they’re all built on distinctive riffs - catchy guitar hooks that bring you in and carry you throughout the tune.

Those riffs inspired millions of us to break out our tennis racket air guitars and buy those songs. Selling your product or service requires a memorable riff as well. Translated for business: you need a compelling sales message that you can repeat again and again.

For example, say you’re creating an online campaign for a new hearing aid. You’ve decided that “independence” is your top line message. Repeat the message of independence on every facet of the campaign - on the banner ad, the landing page and the call-to-action copy.

Many of us recognize this as a standard strategy found in a creative brief. But some don’t bother to repeat the riff. They mistakenly assume that prospects will remember their impressions as they go through the sales cycle. Not true.

If you don’t reinforce the message, you’re just improvising. Which is fine for an avant-garde jazz composition. But not so good for crafting a memorable rock song – or for crafting a memorable sales message.

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Album of the month
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Starting in the late 1950s, American jazz musicians began experimenting with the sounds of the Far East and Africa. Take “At the Helm” by East New York Ensemble De Music. Released in 1974 and recently re-issued, the lineup includes vibes, exotic wind instruments and congas, giving the album a mystical, searching and hypnotic quality. Dim the lights for this one.