Stand Out from the Crowd: 5 Ways to Disrupt the Normal in Your Market

As more and more people come online, it seems everyone starts copying one another. This leads to everything looking the same.  My question here is, what are people doing to disrupt the normal? 

I mean I get it, people are busy trying to get started online, make improvements and run their business. They get stuck in the mode of working IN their business and not ON their business. 

So, I’ve had this thought about what I would need to do to “disrupt the normal”.

In marketing, "to disrupt the normal" means to introduce a new idea, product, or service that changes the way people usually do things. This can make old ways seem less useful or even outdated. For example, when smartphones first came out, they disrupted the normal way people used regular cell phones and computers by combining many features into one device. The goal of disrupting the normal is to grab people's attention and offer something better or more convenient than what's currently available.

In saying that I think of what ways a business could disrupt the normal to grab someone’s attention?

One way I could think of is unique branding. Does your branding stand out above the competition? Many times of late I see people using word art as their logo and are satisfied with that. While there is nothing wrong with this, ask yourself, “where is the wow factor?” What makes it memorable? Does it “disrupt” your thought pattern?

When I create a logo, it has to check off several boxes for me. First for me, does it work as a solid color? Most times I would use color in the logo but I like to test it as a solid black or imagine it if it was embossed or etched somewhere.

Would it work embroidered on a shirt or hat? If I were to wear a branded t-shirt out and about would it catch someone's eye enough for them to ask what your company was about?

This actually happened to me. I have a logo for one of my online services that has a purple owl. In wearing it to an event I had people actually ask me where they could buy the shirt even without them knowing what the product was. I felt I had achieved my goal. 

The second idea or way is still on the topic of branding. Your company name may not always say what your product or service us or does but does your tag line grab their attention in a good way? 

The service I mentioned is Yurpl - It’s a rebrand of a service I’ve had for a few decades now. I felt it was time to refresh and make it stand out. While the name was meant to be catchy it doesn’t sink in fully until they read the tag line. Your Polls & Surveys. For many that becomes memorable. It sinks in even more when they realize that Yurpl rhymes with purple which is the color of the owl mascot.  

There is a local company that provides printing services. For many years their tag line was “your best single source”. This would bug me to no end. While on one end it does disrupt the normal because you have to ask “your best single source for what?”. Maybe that was their thought process. But on the other end it tells me nothing about their offering.

The third way to disrupt the normal would be packaging of your product. I think of Apple when they launched the iPhone. When you received the box there was this assumed quality just from the way it was packaged. Every piece of the experience had a purpose. While it was just a box, it made you feel like it was worth every dollar you just paid for it, 

Imagine if it was just slapped into one of those molded plastic packages that you need industrial scissors or a ginsu knife to open. Your immediate thought would be that you had been swindled and would question the reliability of the product,

Think about your current offering. Does it make the customer feel like they just won a prize? Even if it’s a digital product, book, membership site, or physical product what can you do to take it to the next level.  

A fourth area where you can disrupt the normal is with customer service. Something I feel is falling by the wayside. Some bigger services such as X formerly known as twitter. Doesn’t have hardly any form of support or customer service. That still bugs me. Why would you remove perfect branding to be called something that makes no sense. Mr. Musk tried this with PayPal as well. At one time he attempted to use X.com for PayPal. It didn’t work then either.

Many of these larger companies make you go through a cycle of read the help files/knowledge base. Community forums, Automated virtual support, before you can even reach a real person. 

This is one area you can really stand out and make a difference. I have seen where a person will be a lifelong customer simply because they were well taken care of by the customer support of  a company.

The fifth and final way you can disrupt the normal is to show up in places your competitors are not. Are you making use of every avenue to get in front of your customers and potential clients? Do you have a website and that’s it? Or are you making use of Facebook, instagram, youtube, reels, shorts, and so forth? Are you educating your customers to show them ways they can’t live without what you’re offering? 

Do you provide a service or services? What can you do to wow that customer? It doesn’t take much at all to do that one extra thing that makes them want to come back time and again. It also doesn’t take much to not do something and make them forget you’re even there.

These are just some of the ways you can take your online business to the next level simply by thinking of ways you can and should disrupt the normal.