Slip into something you wouldn't normally wear.

In every country, in every category, there are category-norms. Yep, even your category, that’s totally special and different.

There are no unique quirks in your category. Shocking, I know.

And these category-norms, they're ubiquitous in affecting every brands positioning, value proposition, messaging, pack-design, website, in-store activation, retailer footprint, GTM strategy, sales training, customer service, the people hired to work on the brand...

In-fact, in my experience the only thing seemingly unaffected by category-norms is pricing.

Pricing is weirdly immune

And these category-norms, are almost herd-like. Brands corral around central themes.

Of course, the vast majority of brands look and sound the same as each other. That's been happening for at least a gazillion years.

But they also sell in the same places and use the same methods, media and messaging to get the publics attention.? And I get it, there's a safety in category-norms.

If you're a brand owner, the boldness of your brand is lower down your priority list than paying your obscenely expensive mortgage (thanks for that Liz Truss) and stopping Derek in Accounts from sticking the knife in.

The price of being dull

Truth bomb… you?can?grow your brand whilst adopting the category-norms. Yep you can. But you've only got expensive options, like outspending the competition through the law of Excessive Share of Voice (ESOV).

Research from Peter Field and Adam Morgan shows it costs a brand an extra ￡10m per campaign to be dull. Let's say that again, when a brand adopts category-norms they have to spend 10 million quid more to get noticed, at the same level than if they'd broken the category-norms.

Wowsers. 10 million smackers. That'll get a CFO's attention immediately.

Just don't tell Derek, he's sharpening the knife and can't wait do you over.

The road to tedium is paved with good intentions

I get it. Nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to be average at their job.

But Underdog's don't have the cash or time to waste ￡10m. So what can you do about it?

Research from?IPSOS and the Effies?shows creative that conforms to category-norms suffers from cognitive immunity. Eeek.

Brands who break category-norms have a 21% increase in Brand Attention compared to brands using the category-norms. 21% ?!

There are Management Consultants who'd sell their Grandma for a 21% increase in Brand Attention.

In a category like yours, 21% is a huge number

If you're a category leader with a 30% market share, then of course a 21% increase in Brand Attention will have a decent effect on your overall ability to grow market share.

But an Underdog with a 5% market share? A 21% increase in Brand Attention is mahooosive. Stuff is going to explode. The lights on your dashboard are going to be screaming at you. Lovely jubbly.

Put your red sneakers on

So what can Underdogs change today? You need to out-think the competition by slipping into something you wouldn’t normally wear.

Spend the time to audit your category, define the category-norms and then start wearing something that nobody else is wearing. Extra points for a sparkly dress on a Tuesday afternoon.

The fabulous Richard Shotton , author of The Illusion of Choice, talks about the Red Sneaker Effect. It's a development of the well-known Restorff Effect, by German psychologist Hedwig von Restorff. (Hedwig, great name btw).

What's?The Red Sneaker Effect? There's a significant inverse correlation between the number of publications a public-speaker has written and the smartness of their clothes. In other words, the better dressed a keynote speaker is, the worse they are as an academic.

It's argued that dressing poorly requires social status, the confidence to break convention. But people who have social status get away with it.

Hence, The Red Sneaker Effect: breaking established social conventions signals high status.

As an Underdog don't outspend the competition. Instead, wear red sneakers and a sparkly dress in a Tuesday board meeting. Do the thing your competition can't, won't or daren't.

Underdog brands, need Underdog thinking.