This was a great read, and I enjoyed the narrator’s voice. I coincidentally found it just after listening to Jack’s Positioning book, which really goes hand in hand. This goes into some wonderful tactical approaches that I used within a couple of weeks of listening to this book (twice for fun!) to help a fellow entrepreneur differentiate his brand right at the beginning stages of his new venture.
I knew his brand was not yet well defined from the outset, mainly because he had been wrapped up in other parts of his business that he had not considered this critical part of his venture. With Differentiate or Die in mind, I set about helping him tease out the brand elements for not only his particular customers to get clarity on the product, but also for potential franchise members looking for a company story they could get behind. This is a must read for anyone looking to position their offering in the market in a meaningful way and to tactically differentiate it from competition. This then lent itself directly to the graphic design and color palettes for his logo.
They do have a glaring “miss” on the concept of convergence. I might have excused this because Apple had not revolutionized the world with the iPhone at the time. But Microsoft, IBM, and other PC manufactures had well surpassed revolutionizing the world with computers that converged separate solutions, I do consider it a miss. But I give respect to them for picking a side and at least committing, regardless of the risk of being proven wrong later.
I think Differentiate or Die! is 80% meat / 20% potatoes. It’s a good read with lots of interesting tactical advice. I listened to it on Audible. It reads well at 1.5 speed.
I tend to listen or read business or technical books all the time, but I am not an affiliate marketer. You can see…
… more of my Audible book reviews here.
… more of my Kindle/Paperback reviews here.
… books I have authored here. (Except the scripture book, not mine.)