🚀 How to show product differentiation

3 tactics to show product differentiation

🔍 The “anti-hero”

• Identify the market leader’s core philosophy (not features) and flip it

  • If they are about "exclusivity", be about "inclusion"

  • If they represent the "old establishment", be the "scrappy underdog"

• Target the "old way of doing things" and clearly state what you stand against to make your brand memorable

  • E.g. Salesforce’s “No Software” campaign positioned against CD-ROM softwares installed onto local desktops and had "No Software" costumes at conferences

• Your value proposition isn't just your product; it's the fact that you are different from the status quo

📝 The “graduate” hook

• Use curiosity-driven messaging that invites customers to move past a common frustration

• Imply progress instead of failure; frame it as “you’ve evolved” instead of “you were wrong”

• Focus on selling a change in status and a solution to a recognized annoyance

• Contrast and show the before/after clearly (e.g. old workflows vs new workflows, old metrics vs new outcomes, old identity vs new identity)

• Leverage templates like: 

  • "Unlike [old way], we [new way]"

  • "We're not [thing people hate], we're [thing people want]"

🎯 Make the enemy explicit

• Identify a specific enemy that you call out by name

• Name the enemy as a system or practice (e.g. hidden fees, bloated workflows, gatekeeping), not a particular company

• In order to figure out who the specific enemy should be, ask yourself:

  • What gap in the market are you filling?

  • What is the market leader doing that frustrates your target customer?

  • What messaging are competitors using that you can flip?

  • What does your target customer complain about regarding existing solutions?

  • Whatever the market leader is doing, can you do the exact opposite?

2 traps to avoid

🚨 Picking too many enemies

• Do not try to be against everything; if you oppose five different things, your message loses its teeth and becomes a blur

• Pick one clear enemy and own that position with absolute clarity

🚨 Picking the wrong enemy

• Don't pick an enemy your customers don't actually care about (or worse, an enemy they actually love); your "villain" must be the source of your target customer's genuine complaints and frustrations

• Don't pick an enemy just to be edgy; pick an enemy because it helps clarify what makes you different and better for a specific group of people

1 tool to leverage

📖 Best practice on showing product differentiation

• Lead on 1 single attribute (e.g. speed, customer support, heritage, domain specialty, etc) that matters most to your customers, and choose one that competitors don’t already own

• Leverage tools like Competitors app to monitor, analyze, and track competitors' website copy, blog posts, social posts, ad performance, and keyword and email changes

Bonus: 1 trend to spark startup ideas

AI in HR? It’s happening now.

Deel's free 2026 trends report cuts through all the hype and lays out what HR teams can really expect in 2026. You’ll learn about the shifts happening now, the skill gaps you can't ignore, and resilience strategies that aren't just buzzwords. Plus you’ll get a practical toolkit that helps you implement it all without another costly and time-consuming transformation project.

Get the free report today.