No more follow the leader

+ Some very sage advice from Dan at FortyMedia - Don't be a poser. I absolutely love this bit:

Research your successful competition and figure out what they did to get to where they are. If any of it is relevant to you, take every last idea you can! But for the love of god, don't just do what they do because they're doing it.

I've had so many conversations with people about clients just doing what their competition is doing. Even yesterday I had a mini conversation with someone about a client who thinks everything should be vanilla - apparently that is how they see their customers too. But still...reminded me of this spot-on cartoon:

Brands and companies that aren't afraid to dive into the water rather than just sticking in a toe when they see the competition doing it are the ones that succeed. They are the ones that stand out in the crowd and quite often they are the ones that consumers gravitate towards.
(hat tip to the fine folks at BrandflakesFor Breakfast)