Making a Difference in Marketing ─ The Foundation of Competitive Advantage

Establishing a difference is the lynchpin of marketing. It can be achieved in many ways. The results can be magical and powerful: such as increasing, with little expense, the price of a little regarded fish from £0.15 a kilo to £1.00. As with many other disciplines which have great value, this potency has often resulted in the discussion of marketing being prey to increasing complexity. This frequently intimidates those marketing could help. Often it is due to the touting of supposedly new paradigms, given plausibility by conveniently invented metrics, and an emphasis on the rational and conscious over the emotional and unconscious, despite the latter aspects appearing to be the basis for much choice.

This imbalance has been highlighted by recent insights from psychology, neurology and behavioural economics. Rather than simply embracing these advances, the focus of marketing has been on additional layers of intricacy and a weighting of emphasis towards means of communication, further distancing marketing from its base.

This book aims to cut through to the pivotal role of differentiation, illustrated by case histories and the advances in the related fields referred to, particularly the work of psychologists such as Daniel Kahneman. Unlike much writing on marketing, it has tried to follow Einstein’s advice to be "as simple as possible, but no simpler".

Jonathan Cahill has extensive experience in advertising, planning and research both in UK and in Italy with most of the leading agencies, such as Young and Rubicam, JWT, Saatchi and Saatchi. He has marketed several products of his own including the Flexo lamp from Spain which was seen there as prosaic and cheap but whose position, through the creation of a brand, logo and finely-tuned marketing, he totally transformed in the UK. It became a best-seller in most of the leading design stores and the Sunday Times described it as "a masterpiece of modern design". He also originated a brand name for a wine product which was bought by Gallo for over $250,000 for use in the U.S.

Jonathan provides consultancy through his company Z Limited, as well as writing articles which have been published in the UK and Australia on the marketing of wine. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster and has also lectured at Trento University in Italy.

His book, Igniting the Brand: Strategies Which Have Shot Brands to Success was published in 2008.