These days it seems as though the market is so insanely saturated. You spend your time and energy keeping your head above water, trying your best to keep up with all the trends, new marketing strategies, chasing after your audience.
If this is you and you need something to help you stand out against the rest.
Well, allow me to throw you a life preserver.
Back in 1962 Avis always came up as #2 against their rival Hertz. So they set out to launch a new campaign to help position themselves as better.⠀⠀⠀
But during their research and brand strategy phase, as much as they tried, they really couldn’t come up with anything that really helped them stand apart. So instead of fighting it, they embraced their weakness.
They really couldn’t think of anything other than, “We try harder because we have to”.
They came up with a new slogan “when you’re No. 2, you try harder.” They ran ads that read “Avis can’t afford to make you wait”, and “Avis can’t afford not to be nice”.
Their customers loved it and they went from losing over 2 million to making over 1 million in one year. (Remember this was 1962 so about $8.9 million today).
It went down as one of the most memorable marketing campaigns in history for one single reason – it doesn’t pretend to be something that it isn’t. Avis didn’t claim to be the best in their industry instead they embraced their flaws with humility and in turn it helped them stand out in a competitive market.
I know this all happened in 1962, but I think we can still learn so much from Avis. What if instead of trying to hide our flaws, our quirks, or what we’re a little bit embarrassed about- we embraced them.
Instead of trying to hide our weirdness we took ownership and found the silver lining?
So, what’s YOUR weirdness? What are you trying to hide that could actually be your superpower?