Every marketer wants her company to stand apart from the competition. In fact, differentiation has been the number-one or number-two priority of B2B marketers for the past three years, according to ITSMA research.

Traditionally, brand positioning has been the primary means for making a company stand out. However, we need to change the language of branding. In fact, we need to stop using the word brand altogether. Nothing conveys the mysticism of marketing more than a discussion of the company’s brand. To those outside marketing (think CEO, CFO), branding seems like little more than logos and expensive advertising. On the other hand, a discussion about what makes companies stand out from the crowd and shortens the sales cycle—in short, differentiation—gets their attention.

For services providers, differentiation comes through the services experience. That experience should convey a sense of consistency and reliability. Customers need to feel comfortable that once they have investigated the benefits of a brand and invested their trust in it, those benefits will continue and will not require continual reaffirmation. Therefore, differentiation requires internal alignment around not just messaging, but also operational issues such as internal processes, quality control, and customer satisfaction.

Increasingly, however, differentiation has also come to rely upon reputation—especially in the digital era. Indeed, at ITSMA, we believe that differentiation and reputation have become two sides of the same coin. Differentiation is what you say about your company, while reputation is what others—not just customers but also analysts, bloggers, and the media—say about you. With the rise of the Internet and increasing customer power, differentiation and reputation have become equally important and increasingly integrated.

In this ITSMA Update, we examine the trends that are reshaping the relative importance of differentiation and reputation and offer advice for companies that are struggling to stand out while maintaining good standing among their customers and key influencers.

The topics touched upon in this Update include:

• Differentiation Challenges
• Tools for Differentiation
• Types of Differentiation
• Real vs. Perceived Differentiators
• Tough Questions that Reveal True Differentiation
• Reputation in Crisis
• The Ease of Pro test
• Five Steps for Influencing Reputation:
  • Get Aligned Internally Before Going Outside
  • Find External Advocates
  • Engage the Critics
  • Use Influence, Not Control
  • Amplify the Message
• Integrating Differentiation and Reputation