---
title: "Take #58: Make a Unique Statement, Not a Copy"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/abd09bab-9e69-4f00-815e-31e377330f3b
published: 2026-11-06T18:11:39.487Z
stack: https://stacklist.com/stack/0053bdce-b284-4ed3-8b79-c57067cbe70e
summary: "Jeremiah Wassom argues that marketers should stop copying competitors and instead focus on creating unique brand statements. Copying competitors only positions your brand as equally good, not distinctively different, so effective strategy requires developing your own point of view rather than following industry trends."
tags: "marketing, branding, creativity, differentiation, competition, strategy, unique-positioning"
key_entities: "Jeremiah Wassom (person), The Many (organization), creative brief (concept), brand differentiation (concept), unique positioning (concept)"
classification: "transcript"
content_hash: "sha256:cae7f39c69647099a6a57adc62f72457bf6fed078f3bcbe5d7c6bfd2a9fc4499"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 363
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Take #58: Make a Unique Statement, Not a Copy

## Stop Watching the Competition

Jeremiah Wassom has a simple view on marketing: marketers should focus less on what other marketers are doing. In Take #58 of The Many Takes, he draws on his past experience to explain why.

## What Copying Looks Like

Wassom has worked on projects that literally tried to copy what competitors were doing. Those projects weren't built around what people are looking for, what the work needs to be, or what the messaging needs to say.

His example is simple. A competitor says they are 1% faster, so the instinct is to say you are 1% faster than that.

## The Problem With "Just As Good"

When you copy what the rest of the industry is saying or doing, all you are saying is that you are just as good as those guys. In Wassom's words, you are not making any unique statement yourself.

## A Better Creative Brief

The stack's description puts it bluntly: your competitors are a terrible creative brief. If a strategy starts with "they did this, so we should too," you have given away the most interesting part, which is your own point of view. The aim is to make something only your brand could make.

## A Question for You

What brand always feels unmistakably like itself to you?

## About The Many Takes

The Many Takes is original content produced by The Many, a creative agency specializing in food and beverage marketing. It is a series of short-form leadership clips featuring people from across the company.