“Comparison is the thief of joy”.
I should start by acknowledging I can’t take credit for that lovely turn of phrase. It was uttered by a friend of my wife over a recent baby brunch, and it stuck with her. I later discovered it’s actually attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, but (ironically, in the context of this article) everything’s borrowed, right?
She was seeking to reassure my wife that her experiences with our rather vocal and temperamental 8-week old newborn should be seen relatively. Every new parent is facing their own battles, but some are less apparent or evident than others. If you spend your life peaking over garden fences, admiring the lushness of the lawn (there’s a snappier phrase for that, I’m sure), then you’re on a one way ticket to downsville.
It did it’s reassuring job. And, in her retelling of this anecdote, I made a mental note of a fantastic insight (she loves it when I do that!). Because I believe it’s a practice we’re all guilty of in brand and marketing.
We spend a healthy amount of our time monitoring our competitors. Or tracking the enviable feats of the Apples, Nikes etc. of the world in shaping their brands and experience, looking on with sometimes envious eyes. “What an idea!! Why on earth didn’t I think of that?!” we fawn.
But such comparison can be a fools errand. A race to the bottom of creativity. Even in a directly comparable category, you’re still rarely comparing like for like. That’s the great thing about brand — you’re carving out your own place and voice. In a world of sameness, it’s often all we have to act as the differentiator for people.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with having an awareness of what others are doing — even, however painful it can be, admitting when a competitor has nailed it. Rick Rubin said that an artists admiration of another’s work can inspire them to dream bigger and pursue something better. Paul McCartney admitted that Sgt Pepper’s was their continual attempt to outdo ‘Pet Sounds’, such was his admiration for the masterpiece The Beach Boys had created.
But to directly compare can be self destructive. A temptation to compromise on your own principles for the sake of chasing the de facto rainbow.
So let’s all apply comparison in the way it can be most constructive — to stay informed. To inspire new thinking. To push our limits of creativity and innovate towards newly distinctive directions.
That road surely leads to a field filled with untapped joy.
