If there is any reason to even think about branding in business, it is for the sake of differentiating your company in the minds of the people you want to serve. However, real differentiation doesn’t come from looking or talking differently, but from acting differently.

What makes your friends and loved ones so unique to you is that they behave differently than all the others. You might enjoy their looks and talk, but what you value is the things they do that are special from your point of view.

That is precisely how the Real Brand Work of the top 5% of brands in every industry works compared to the superficial branding efforts of the remaining 95%. If you want to be perceived as different, you must BE really different. That can only come from taking actions that anybody else doesn’t.