Is comparing your marketing to the big brands’ helping or harming your growth?
Written by: Rosalind Toews
Spoiler alert: that answer lies in the difference between imitation and inspiration.
Comparison: an all-too-salient topic in today’s discourse. We see it everywhere—and we feel it deep. From the moment we roll over in bed in the morning, to the minute we close our eyes, and even then in our dream state… images of all the things, the experiences, the lifestyle that we oh-so-longingly wish we could have fill our heads like sugarplum fairies.
Was it always this way? Sure, to some degree. Envy, admiration, inspiration… these are all emotions universal to the human experience. But in talking with friends and family lately, I’ve noticed that many of us have become cognizant of a new epidemic that’s taking the world by storm: a constant feeling that we must be more.
My theory—as is I’m sure the theory of many others who have noticed this insidious phenomenon—is that the neverending highlight reel we’re immersed in online has created a general feeling of malaise and not-enoughness in our not-so-social world. And because we’re only human, this feeling doesn’t just manifest through our hankering for a better home, better car, better stuff—it sneakily spills over into every facet of our lives… and that includes our work.
One of these companies is not like the other
I hear it all too often in meetings with other marketers, business owners, designers, etc… basically anyone involved in making marketing decisions:
“[Company X] does it like this… let’s try that.”
“They are on TikTok, so we should be too.”
“Here’s how [Company X] has positioned it, so let’s try something similar.”
“They’re ranked #1 on Google! Why aren’t we up there?”
“Have you seen their latest campaign? It went VIRAL! Let’s make a viral video.”
First off, I just want to say that this is totally human. And it’s also 100% part of the creative process. We can and should look to industry leaders for inspiration, because they are leaders for a reason. As Hemingway aptly put it: “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes the master.”
But here’s the thing: using another brand’s work as inspiration is not equal to replicating their strategy in an attempt to amass the same results. Here are just a few reasons why.
#1 — You probably have a different audience
I was once working alongside an organization undergoing a rebrand. In search of a new name for the company, they hired a brand consultant to curate a list of options. The new names presented were… you could say… radically hip. The consultant wanted to go with a bold, playful, dramatic, stop-you-in-your-tracks kind of name. Something that looked and felt WAY out there. Young. Cool. Casual.
But there was one problem.
After the executives got over the hype they’d been sold on (in their defense, this consultant was a reallll good salesman) they realized how unfitting the new name was for their audience. They’d been trying to create this edgy, youthful brand for a customer base that was actually fairly traditional, conservative, and corporate. But they’d been so immersed in admiration of ultra-trendy brands, they’d forgotten their roots. Had they missed the wakeup call and continued down the path with this new name, I believe the rebrand would have been a major flop.
At the core of any half-decent marketing initiative is a rich understanding of the customer. Everything I do as a story strategist—from developing a brand’s foundational messaging to writing a simple social media caption—begins with the same question: who is our audience?
When your marketing goals are loosely based on what big brands are up to—or even your close competitors—they overlook this critical factor. Because your customers are not the same as their customers. And if you think they are, then it’s possible you need to do some work around audience development (that is, figuring out who exactly you’re selling to, what they care about, and how your business is uniquely positioned to help them achieve that).
There are endless examples of marketing campaigns gone wrong due to tone-deaf creative direction and strategy. My point? Don’t be like those guys. Always start with your audience first.
#2 — You probably have very different resources
For brevity’s sake, let’s put this bluntly: if you want the same results as Company X, but you don’t have the same marketing resources available as Company X (budget, team, agencies, brand equity), then you are setting yourself up for failure.
Asking your strappy marketing team with a barely-there-budget to produce similar results to a name brand is plain unfair. I say this with compassion, truly, because I think so many people underestimate what it takes to create the marketing they see and admire in the wild. Let’s take a peek at some recognizable and realistic numbers for example:
Air BnB halved its paid ads budget in 2021 from $1.14B to $482M. That’s advertising alone.
Microsoft has more than 5,300 employees in their marketing department.
Popular athletic attire brand Gymshark has over 380 people on their social media brand marketing team, according to a quick LinkedIn search and filter.
HubSpot spent 49% of its revenue on sales and marketing efforts in 2023.
So yes, I believe that comparing your marketing to brands of scale can be harmful. And it’s not only harmful to your own expectations—it can create turbulence on your teams and build a hostile culture. Where it can be helpful, on the other hand, is when we learn to differentiate imitation from inspiration.
[Side note: For budget context, it’s been said that small businesses should spend 7-8% of gross revenue on marketing, and startups closer to 11%. These numbers vary by industry—check out this HubSpot article for further insight.]
Not all imitation is a form of flattery
So if the motto is inspiration, not imitation—where’s the difference? I’m so glad you asked.
Here are some examples of when it’s okay to seek marketing inspiration from big brands:
Loving the way their product photography looks and moodboarding it—with realistic expectations yours will likely not look the same unless you have the budget and team to execute
Noting how seamless their customer experience seems to be and striving for the same—but expecting that they likely have powerful technology built into the back end to do so
Admiring how personalized and engaging their email marketing messages are—and realizing they probably have an entire team dedicated to creating those custom workflows
Gleaning insights from how their content marketing is always relevant to their customer—with the expectation that they’ve performed intensive research to gain audience insights
Taking queues from the framework they use to organize and publish content on their website—accepting that they likely have a team of copywriters and strategists to make this happen
Notice how these are all based in theory, not numbers, and can generally be used as inspiration to serve businesses at any scale. That is, if you can accept the caveats that come with them.
Here’s where it does NOT make sense to compare your marketing to big brands:
Market positioning and how you talk about your products or services
Where they rank on Google and in other search engine results
Vanity metrics like the frequency at which they post content or their # of followers
The scale and quality of their multi-platform marketing campaign or content production
The media pickup of their press releases and PR campaigns
Their rate of growth
Notice how these are all numbers based—because when the playing field isn’t level, the metrics shouldn’t be, either.
Create your own definition of success
If nothing else, I hope this article leaves you with one message that’s salient to both our personal and professional lives: quit comparing everything + create your own definition of success. One that’s optimistic, yet pragmatic. Hopeful, yet logical. And if you need some help figuring what those benchmarks are when it comes to marketing, you know where to find me.