Emotion is the driving force used by your nervous system to influence your decisions.

Feelings of fear and trepidation are triggered by the unknown. These emotions prompt you to invest your resources cautiously.

Feelings of trust, comfort and security are triggered by things familiar:  Family and friends.  Ethnic background.  Political affiliations.

Humans have long trusted the wisdom of groups as a survival mechanism. Neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains, “There is, of course,  great value in belonging to a group. Safety in numbers, for one. But there is also a mathematical explanation for why the brain is so willing to give up its own opinions: a group of people is more likely to be correct about something than an individual.”

In essence, your natural instinct is to follow the herd. And it’s counterintuitive for you to venture out on your own. That’s why many business owners continually look to their competitors for ideas and inspiration. But beware: this approach is littered with fool’s gold.

Here’s what you must always remember: A business revolution can never be the result of copying the strategy and tactics employed by your competition. Your success is directly related to standing out, not fitting in. And you must battle human nature if you wish to create a unique point of differentiation for your business.

Why is being unique so important?

Because marketing strategies are frequency dependent, which means the value of your marketing message declines as it becomes more common in the marketplace. The greater the number of copycats, the more difficult it will be for your customer to pick out the differences and choose among you. Once all competitors have adopted a similar strategy, no one owns the edge. The arms race continues. Which is why you must work even harder once you’ve achieved market leader status. (Hey, you didn’t think it would get any easier with that big, bright red target on your back, did you?)

Maintaining your status as a market leader requires that you continually raise the bar by improving your company’s value through product innovation, customer intimacy and operational efficiency.

Market leaders never rest. They relinquish no ground.

Remember, ‘safety in numbers’ dictates that your competition will emulate what’s working in the marketplace. Resting on your laurels is a surefire way to invite parity.

So, I have just one question for you: Do you have the courage to break from the herd and own the edge?

Up next… a technique you can use to create a business revolution in your industry.

As I’ve said before in greater detail, the brain’s decision making machinery is amazingly fragile. Working memory has a finite capacity. According to psychologist George Miller, the conscious brain can juggle only seven pieces of data at any one moment. Heaping on additional information quickly capsizes decision making.

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer observes, “Choices that seem straightforward – like choosing a jam in the supermarket – can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex. It gets intimidated by all the jam data. And that’s when bad decisions are made.”

But perhaps the most revealing insight into the paradox of choice comes from Sheena Iyengar, as the social psychologist brilliantly explains how perceptual reality shapes your view of choice. Watch video. It’s one of the best TED videos I’ve seen.

“In reality, many choices are between things that are not that much different. The value of choice depends on our ability to perceive differences between the options. Americans train their whole lives to play ’spot the difference.’ They practice this from such an early age that they’ve come to believe that everyone must be born with this ability. In fact, though all humans share a basic need and desire for choice, we don’t all see choice in the same places or to the same extent. When someone can’t see how one choice is unlike another, or when there are too many choices to compare and contrast, the process of choosing can be confusing and frustrating. Instead of making better choices, we become overwhelmed by choice. Sometimes even afraid of it. Choice no longer offers opportunities, but imposes constraints. It’s not a marker of liberation, but of suffocation by meaningless minutia. In other words, choice can develop into the very opposite of everything it represents in America when it is thrust upon those who are insufficiently prepared for it.” – Sheena Iyengar

Do you own your company’s domain name?

Sounds like a silly question, right? Something you haven’t heard since the Internet Dark Ages of 1998.

But lately, I’ve been asking this question a lot.

Here’s why: I’ve seen plenty of business owners unknowingly transfer their company’s domain ownership over to the company managing their website. In most cases, there’s nothing underhanded going on. At least I hope not. The web design company is simply trying to save the business owner some time by renewing the expiring domain for them.

No sweat. But you’ve got a problem if you’re being asked to sign paperwork giving someone else the rights to your domain name.

Yes, you may have a close relationship with your web design company… today. But what about tomorrow? You can’t be sure that your relationship will remain strong. Hey, arguments happen. Web designers go out of business all the time. Why risk your company’s most valuable marketing asset by placing it into the hands of someone else – no matter how much you may like or trust them?

Don’t. Never transfer your domain ownership over to anyone.

If you have any doubts about who owns the rights to your domain name, check with your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc.) or search the Whois.com database to verify the owner of your domain.

Credibility is a necessary component of any powerful marketing strategy. And credibility is earned NOT from words you speak, but from the actions you take. To gain iron-clad credibility, your presence must be accompanied by action, and your customer will instinctively look for a credibility investment that demonstrates your level of commitment to her.

Here’s what I recommend: Raise the value of your products or services by developing a cluster of unique features and benefits – all of which reinforce the customer’s felt need. These actions will create a point of differentiation and demonstrate your unwavering commitment to the customer.

Let’s quickly look at an example:

Consider Jim Gilbert’s Wheels and Deals used-car dealership in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Rather than competing on price, Jim speaks to the desire to buy a dependable used car – a felt need that attracts plenty of customers to Jim’s dealership. But Jim doesn’t stop there. He takes specific actions to demonstrate the reliability of the vehicles his dealership sells.

Jim’s dealership attaches a six-month/12,000 kilometer warranty to every vehicle sold. Additionally, Jim has built a state-of-the-art, Napa-Pro Service Shop on site. Every late-model used car Jim acquires goes through a complete and thorough inspection in its Napa-sanctioned service shop. And any and all repairs are made before the car is placed on the lot to be sold.

Making this strategy even more exclusive, the dealership only services the vehicles they sell. Knowing long wait times would frustrate their car-buying customers, Jim intentionally bypasses the opportunity to make additional money by not opening his shop to the general public.

Did you notice how Jim has built a cluster of related and mutually beneficial activities that reinforce the customer’s felt need of wanting a dependable used car?

Take a page from Jim’s playbook. Commit your company to a felt need of the customer that you are willing and able to meet. Doing so will amplify your marketing strategy in two ways: First, as I’ve previously mentioned, you’ll elevate your credibility. Second, you’ll create barriers to entry, which will discourage competitors from copying your marketing strategy.

Convenience is a powerful motivator in a busy world. We are naturally drawn to that which simplifies our lives.

So how are you building convenience into your products or services? And what are you charging for that convenience?

The heart of the problem: It’s a noisy world. Five thousand advertisements ambush you and I daily (Yankelovich 2008). And many of these ads are saturated with ad-speak and hype, leaving consumers more than a bit overwhelmed.

So, what can you do about it?

Consider forming an exclusive marketing partnership with a complimentary business.

The marketing partnership between Select Comfort and Radisson Hotels provides a sparkling example. Since 2004, the two companies have teamed up to outfit Radisson hotels with the Sleep Number bed – a move that provides a marketing boost for both parties.

So let’s quickly break down the marketing benefits for each.

Benefits for Radisson:

Swapping out the standard-issue hotel mattress with the Sleep Number adjustable bed creates a strong point of differentiation for Radisson.

More than anything, you want a good night’s sleep while away from the comfort of your own bed. Right?

Now Radisson can promise you what no other hotel chain can: personalized comfort. Just dial up the exact degree of firmness that allows you to sleep like a baby.

Benefits for Select Comfort:

The Radisson partnership gives Select Comfort a way to introduce its Sleep Number bed to consumers in a non-intrusive way, cutting through the clutter of ad-speak and hype.

Better yet, it allows the company to demonstrate the comfort and versatility of its Sleep Number bed. After all, there’s nothing more persuasive than giving customers the opportunity to experience the virtues of your product or service before buying.

Conclusion:

I’m unaware of financial details of the agreement, but I’m betting it’s a win-win for both companies. I imagine Radisson gets a sweetheart deal on a top-notch mattress for its hotels, while Select Comfort benefits from an effective, inexpensive way to advertise its product.

Ready to take action? Make a list of complimentary businesses you can explore negotiating an exclusive partnership with. But don’t stop there. Call or send an email to each. You never know what opportunities will emerge.

But for the moment, forget about the frenzy surrounding the edge-of-your-seat announcement of the iPad. Instead, let’s peel back the curtain and discuss the mechanism behind Apple’s marketing machine.

So what lies behind the curtain?

Apple’s core values – the axis around which all else revolves.

Apple is forever loyal to its core values. It acts as a genetic code that defines everything about the company: its employees, projects, products, marketing and advertising.

So, who is Apple and what does the company stand for? According to the Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, the company maintains the following core values:

• We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products.
• We believe in the simple, not the complex.
• We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make.
• We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
• We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
• We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.
• We don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

“Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world. And, we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Our customers want to know who is Apple, and what is it that we stand for. Where do we fit in this world.” – Steve Jobs

So what are the values that define your company? What are the things you stand for, or against?

Take action: List out your company’s core values. And remember, your company’s core values represent the axis around which all else revolves.

Okay, okay, I admit it. Sometimes my wife, Lydia, throws in a small bag of chocolate chips for an added glucose kick. (Hey, it’s only one day a week.)

But one thing is clear: Whipping up a batch of pancakes is messy and time-consuming. And cleanup is definitely no fun: frying pans, spatulas, mixing bowls, plates and countertops slathered in a confluence of sticky batter, sugar and syrup. So, it’s understandable why our breakfast tradition is relegated to one day a week.

But this barrier might soon be eliminated with the emergence of the Batter Blaster: an organic pancake-and-waffle mix in a pressurized can with a point-and-shoot nozzle. With minimal prep-time and cleanup, cooking pancakes is quick and easy.

Want proof of the Batter Blaster’s speed and convenience?

The product was used to cook 76,382 pancakes in eight hours, setting a Guinness World Record. More convincingly, the Batter Blaster is available in 13,000 outlets nationwide, including Costco and Whole Foods Market, with 2009 revenue expected to reach $19.5 million.

Batter Blaster’s success is based on a simple, two-step formula:

1. Identify a common drawback or fear surrounding your product or service. This is the condition driving your customer’s felt need.
2. Develop a solution that eliminates or reduces this obstacle. In other words, satisfy your customer’s felt need.

Recall that Flip simplified the video camera by eliminating all the doodads and gizmos that prevents people from using a camcorder. The pocket-sized, point-and-shoot Flip now dominates the $2.4 billion-a-year camcorder industry.

Likewise, Batter Blaster is doing the same with pancakes.

So how might you simplify your product or service?

But don’t count Saks Fifth Avenue among retailers offering deep discounts. In an effort to wean customers from sales, the department store is stocking fewer items and selling them at full price.

Why exactly is Saks jumping off the sale bandwagon?

Because exclusivity is the driving force behind luxury purchases.

Thorstein Veblen coined the term conspicuous consumption in his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, which explains that individuals display their wealth by spending lavishly on goods and services:

• First class trips to Paris.
• A vacation home in the Hamptons.
• Prada mink handbags.

Every brand occupies a position in the customer’s mind. For Saks Fifth Avenue, this position is luxury and the exclusivity it buys. Kudos to Saks for understanding that a brand cannot stand for luxury while offering deep discounts of 50-70 percent.

So, what position does your brand occupy in the customer’s mind? And are you taking steps to protect its position?

But everything else about the business remains a mystery. I have no idea when the gym will officially open, what type of fitness equipment it will have or the cost of membership. I can’t tell you a thing. Nadathing!

Why?

Because Anytime Fitness neglected to list a phone number or website anywhere on its storefront – a simple action that would have had a positive impact on its success.

And get this: The gym is located near a busy intersection, adjacent to a Target and Lowe’s. Talk about a blown opportunity.

By providing contact information during pre-launch, Anytime Fitness could have built a solid foundation of customers before it even opened its doors – all without spending a penny on traditional marketing or advertising. (Hey, there’s no cheaper advertising than a good location.)

The Butterfly Effect states that a change in something seemingly small and insignificant — such as a flap of a butterfly’s wings — might have larger consequences in the future, such as the path a hurricane will travel.

Marketing consultant, Jim Connolly recently blogged about producing big results from small changes. Jim’s spot on. Far too often, marketers become so enamored with the big picture that they overlook the small, inexpensive changes that can boom sales through the roof. Things like:

• Experimenting with headlines and copy
• Improving signage and lighting
• Maintaining convenient hours of operation
• Updating your website regularly

Are you looking for the butterfly wings in your business?

Review the simple details that define your company, and make it easy for customers to do business with you. You just might see big results and spectacular growth.