OVER TO YOU
Stand Out
Commanding attention through clarity in your unique value.
Resources to accompany chapter 5 of Make Marketing Matter: Change perceptions. Drive performance. Architect growth.
Chapter snapshot
Stand Out is about closing the gap between how distinctive your business believes it is and how distinctive it actually looks from the outside.
Valuable uniqueness lives at the intersection of three things: what your business is genuinely great at, what your competitors aren’t doing, and what your customers actually value enough to act on.
Most organisations only ever occupy one or two of those circles. Standing out means defining that intersection with rigour, then making sure it’s understood internally and demonstrated consistently.
Why Stand Out matters
Distinctiveness is a commercial lever not a marketing nice-to-have. When a business can’t articulate a clear difference, buyers have no basis to choose it over anyone else, which drives down pricing power and drives up competitive pressure.
When difference is clear, defensible, and understood both internally and externally, it becomes something the whole business can lean on. It helps buyers choose, employees prioritise, and leaders make decisions with confidence. Without it, marketing activity will sound like everyone else’s and buyers won’t know why to select you over other options available to them.
Definitions in this chapter
stand out principle.
The discipline of identifying and demonstrating the valuable uniqueness that makes your business the clear and memorable choice.
Check In
Take a moment to reflect on how clearly your business stands out today.
- Could every member of your leadership team describe what makes the business different in the same way?
- Would your customers say the same thing, and could a competitor make the same claim?
Take Action
Draft your first 'only we can say this' statement:
"Only we do [X] to address [customer need], enabled by [capability], while others [don't / can't / won't]."
Then stress test it. Would a customer care? Can we evidence it? What are we choosing not to do to deliver it well? Could a well-funded competitor replicate it over time?
If it fails any test, you're describing an aspiration or a non-negotiable, not a difference. Keep refining until it sounds true only if it came from you.
Bring it to the room
Valuable uniqueness can't be defined by marketing alone. Bring together the people representing executive, commercial, marketing, product, delivery and finance perspectives.
Work through the three circles independently: what you're great at, what customers value, and what competitors aren't doing. Capture, group and rank the top three or four answers for each. Then bring them together and look for where all three overlap.
You're looking for what's provable and you'll need to agree what you don't stand out for as much as what you do.
Related reading
How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
Sharp shows how distinctive brand elements, such as logos and colours, build the mental availability that helps a business be recalled when buyers need it. It's the starting point for understanding why standing out matters to growth: before a business can be chosen, it has to be remembered.
He argues that brands grow by being distinctive and memorable. Difference that isn't recognised won't do its job.
Oxford University Press, 2010.
The Long and Short of It, Les Binet & Peter Field
Binet and Field show that campaigns which come to mind are almost twice as likely to deliver both short-term sales growth and long-term market-share growth. It's the book to read if you've ever been pushed to justify standing out in purely short-term terms, as it makes the case that being remembered drives results today and growth over time.
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, 2013.
Back pocket arguments
- Ehrenberg-Bass found that in business-to-business buying decisions, 95% of the audience isn’t looking to buy. Read the article>
- Businesses must be remembered so they are considered when buyers start to research options. 6Sense calls this the ‘Day One shortlist’ and found that 95% of the time, buyers purchase from a vendor on this list. Read the research >
- Kantar showed that being seen as unique and leading the way is the number one factor on share performance. The study highlighted that being front of mind drives volume of sales whereas difference drives margin. Read the research >
- Kantar also found that meaningful difference explains 94% of a brand’s pricing power. Read the article >
Get the full picture
This page includes additional resources to support Chapter 6: Stand Out in the book Make Marketing Matter.
The chapter walks through the full approach to finding and activating your valuable uniqueness. Make Marketing Matter is a comprehensive guide for marketing leaders and boardroom colleagues who want to build a marketing ecosystem that shows impact, links to outcomes, and leads to recognisable revenue.
30
Definitions
Clear, precise language that gives you a shared vocabulary for your ecosystem approach.
40
Practical Exercises
Consistent, repeatable actions that bring the ecosystem approach to life.
Preorder Make Marketing Matter
Make Marketing Matter: Change perceptions. Drive performance. Architect growth. is out on 20th October 2026.
Connect with Emma on LinkedIn
The best way to reach out to Emma is via LinkedIn. Message and connect directly via the platform.
Subscribe to Emma's newsletter
Emma writes a regular LinkedIn newsletter on how to make marketing matter. Subscribe for updates.