Most of us think very highly of ourselves. 

This naturally translates to how we think about our marketing because we think very highly of our brands, too.

A key pitfall I try to avoid in our strategic marketing sessions with brands is the benchmarking of our own brands against exceptions instead of examples.

When I ask questions about brand analogies, comparisons, and benchmarks, most people say:

“We’re just like Apple.”

“We’re the Uber of our industry.”

“Our positioning is just like Nike’s.”

While I agree that it’s easy to explain ourselves to others in terms of familiar and famous brands, the danger is that we soon tend to think of ourselves as very similar to them. 

As we compare our brands to others, it’s far better to benchmark against more accurate examples in similar markets than awesome exceptions at the top of these markets.