Simple question. Not so easy to answer. Especially when you’re marketing advanced medical technologies whose features and benefits need to be put into MD language, not R&D language.

Differentiation is the act of identifying and designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish your offering from the competitions. Defining differentiation is one of the first steps in developing a powerful brand. It drives, or is interrelated to, a number of important steps including positioning, primary messaging, value proposition, and more.

While a company can create many differences, each difference created has a cost as well as a benefit. A difference is worth establishing when the benefit exceeds the cost. More generally, a difference is worth establishing when it satisfies the following criteria:

• Important: The difference delivers a highly valued benefit to a sufficient number of buyers.
• Superior: The difference is superior to the ways of obtaining the same benefit.
• Distinctive: The difference either isn’t offered by others or is offered in a more distinctive way.
• Preemptive: The difference cannot be easily copied by competitors.
• Communicable: The difference is communicable and visible to the buyers.

How does your differentiation stack up against these criteria? A simple question. Maybe not so easy to answer.

Jon Hermie is the President at DevicePharm, a marketing strategy and integrated marketing communications firm based in Irvine, CA. You can email Jon at jonh@DevicePharm.com.