By Giuseppe Gullo | Commercial Leader & Consultant

I recently stumbled across the book “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd” by Youngme Moon. It's one of those thought-provoking books. A major takeaway for me is that heightened competition often leads to products and services becoming more alike. One might think that differentiation is crucial, particularly in highly competitive markets, but why is this not the case?

When I established a customer experience team at a previous company, I encountered the concept of “emotions in marketing” for the first time. Emotions played a pivotal role in the company’s marketing strategy, and one of my task was to create emotional campaigns for existing customers. Initially, I was skeptical—wondering if purely emotional content had any practical value or measurable impact. However, my perspective shifted as I witnessed positive outcomes.