The Unfair Advantage: Uncovering Strategic Gold for Your Clients

By Jonathan James

In a marketplace where differentiation is increasingly difficult, the most valuable thing you can do as a copywriter or creative is to uncover your client's unfair advantage—that distinct combination of attributes, perspectives, and capabilities that competitors simply cannot replicate.

The Power of Listening for Gold

One of my own unfair advantages, as Zach Canfield at Goodby Silverstein & Partners once pointed out, is that I listen. Really listen. I'm aware when something is said, done, or seen that connects to something else strategically valuable. This skill isn't just valuable for my own work—it's essential for uncovering what makes my clients truly special.

Here's the thing about unfair advantages: they often hide in plain sight. Your clients may be sitting on strategic gold without realizing it. Your job? To mine for those insights and transform them into compelling narratives.

The Art of Discovery: Capturing Lightning

The most brilliant insights often appear unexpectedly during casual conversations. Make recording these moments a habit—whether through notes, voice memos, or actual recordings (with permission, of course).

There's nothing more frustrating than having that lightning bolt of insight—that perfect angle that would differentiate your client—only to have it disappear into the ether hours later when you try to recall it. When inspiration strikes, capture it immediately.

Let me share a personal example: While mining reviews for a local store owner, I discovered several customers specifically mentioned appreciating that the business was female-owned. This wasn't something the owner had been actively promoting, but this insight became valuable messaging that we incorporated into marketing content, creating an authentic connection point with a significant portion of their customer base.

What hidden gems might your clients be overlooking?

Five Standard Discovery Methods

Consider these proven approaches to uncover client insights:

• Comprehensive stakeholder interviews: Don't just speak with the marketing department. Talk with customer service representatives who hear complaints daily, sales teams who face objections firsthand, and operations staff who know where systems excel or fail. Ask: "What do you wish customers understood better about your company?"
• Competitor gap analysis: Study not just what competitors claim as advantages, but where they're conspicuously silent. Ask clients: "What customer problem does everyone in your industry struggle to solve well?" The answer often reveals opportunity.
• Customer journey deep-dive: Map emotional responses at each touchpoint, not just functional ones. Where do customers feel confused, delighted, or surprised? Ask: "At what moment do customers typically realize they made the right choice with you?"
• Review mining with sentiment analysis: Look beyond star ratings to the specific language customers use. Do they consistently mention unexpected benefits? Are there emotional responses that competitors don't elicit? Ask: "What's something customers thank you for that you never advertised or promised?"
• Historical triumph investigation: Examine your client's most successful campaigns, products, or periods. What unique factors contributed to that success that might have been overlooked? Ask: "What's something your company once did that competitors still haven't figured out?"

Five Unorthodox Discovery Methods

Want to find insights others miss? Try these less conventional approaches:

• The "naïve observer" session: Bring in someone completely unfamiliar with the industry (perhaps a creative from a totally different field) and have them interview your client. Their questions, unconstrained by industry assumptions, often reveal blind spots and opportunities.
• Rejection investigation: Interview people who chose competitors instead. Not to win them back, but to understand the decision through a different lens. Ask: "What almost made you choose my client instead?"
• Crisis response analysis: How does your client handle problems differently? Sometimes the most telling differentiator isn't what a company does when things go right, but how they respond when things go wrong.
• The "impossible question" workshop: Ask stakeholders: "If resources, technology and market conditions were no object, what would you create or offer?" Then work backward to find elements of that vision that might actually be possible now.
• Cultural archaeology: Dig into company origins, founding stories, and early decisions. What principles or approaches were established then that still subtly influence operations today? Ask: "What does your company still do because your founder insisted on it?"

Turning Insights Into Strategic Gold

Once you've gathered these insights, the real magic begins. How do you transform them into compelling strategic advantages?

Three Standard Applications:

• Authentic differentiation: Use discoveries to create messaging that highlights what makes the client genuinely different. For example, if your research reveals unusually low employee turnover in an industry known for high turnover, this could become a cornerstone message about experience and consistency.
• Experience signposting: Identify moments in the customer journey that embody the unfair advantage, then ensure these moments are explicitly highlighted in communications. If your client's engineers spend 40% more time on quality testing than the industry average, make this visible in the customer experience.
• Proof point development: Create tangible demonstrations of abstract advantages. If your client's claim is "we care more," what specifically do they do that proves this? Find the evidence that transforms vague advantages into concrete differentiators.

Three Unique Strategic Applications Through Sur/Petition:

Edward DeBono's concept of Sur/Petition isn't just about competing—it's about transcending the category itself. Here's how to apply it to your client's unfair advantages:

• Category reframing: Use the unique insight to position your client in an entirely new category. A real estate agent who discovers their true advantage is in-depth neighborhood knowledge might stop being a "realtor" and become a "community placement specialist," changing the criteria by which they're evaluated.
• Advantage stacking: Combine multiple smaller advantages into a proprietary system that competitors can't easily replicate. A coaching client might combine their unique background in both psychology and finance to create the "Emotional Wealth Method," creating a category of one.
• Vulnerability as innovation: Transform what seems like a limitation into a category-defining feature. A small law firm might leverage their boutique size not as a disadvantage against large firms but as the foundation for "The Focused Counsel Approach," where clients work directly with senior partners rather than being handed off to junior associates.

Ask yourself: "What category could my client create where they would be the only logical choice?"

Digging Deeper: Questions That Uncover Hidden Gold

To mine for truly differentiating insights, consider these probing questions for your clients:

• "What’s a “flaw” that you think you have that might be someone else’s ideal feature?”
• "What industry 'best practice' do you deliberately ignore, and why?"
• "What's something your company does differently today because of a specific failure in the past?"
• "Which customer compliment caught you most by surprise?"
• "What's something your competitors could copy but don't?"
• "If your company disappeared tomorrow, what would customers miss that they couldn't get elsewhere?"
• "What advantage do you have that would be nearly impossible for a new competitor to replicate, even with unlimited funding?"
• "What's something your team takes for granted that your customers find remarkable?"
• "What's a problem your customers don't realize they have until you solve it for them?"
• "What's the most unusual combination of skills or experiences on your team?"

The answers often reveal advantages hiding in plain sight.

The Self-Discovery Process: Mining Your Client's DNA

Sometimes the most powerful unfair advantage is embedded in your client's organizational DNA—the unconscious patterns, values, and approaches that make them who they are.

Facilitate introspection by asking:

• "What formative experiences shaped how your organization approaches problems?"
• "What challenges or constraints has your company overcome that created unique strengths?"
• "What's something everyone at your company seems to understand without being taught?"
• "What matters to your organization that doesn't seem to matter as much to competitors?"
• "What criticism does your company receive that you secretly consider a badge of honor?"

These questions often reveal deeply held values and approaches that can be transformed into powerful positioning statements.

Formalizing the Unfair Advantage

Many businesses have powerful unfair advantages but fail to recognize, document, or systematically leverage them. Help your clients by:

• Creating an "advantage inventory": Document all potential unfair advantages discovered through your research, categorized by type (operational, cultural, experiential, etc.)
• Developing an "advantage amplification plan": Identify specific ways to strengthen, protect, and showcase each advantage
• Crafting advantage-aligned messaging hierarchies: Structure communications to consistently reinforce the core advantage
• Building advantage-centric credentials: Create case studies and testimonials that specifically highlight the impact of the unfair advantage
• Implementing advantage protection protocols: Identify threats to the advantage and develop strategies to maintain it as a differentiator

Sur/Petition in Action: Creating New Categories (Continued)

When you've uncovered a truly powerful unfair advantage, you might have the opportunity to help your client transcend traditional category competition altogether. Edward de Bono's concept of Sur/Petition offers a framework for this approach.

Here are some ways to leverage unique insights for category creation:

• The combination play: Merge two previously separate categories based on your client's unique capabilities. A financial advisor with deep sustainability expertise might create the category of "Regenerative Wealth Management."
• The extraction method: Take one aspect of a broader service and elevate it to its own category. A marketing agency particularly skilled at customer research might create the category of "Audience Intelligence Specialists."
• The elevation approach: Raise the stakes by focusing on a higher-order benefit. A productivity software company might transcend the "project management tool" category by positioning as "Organizational Clarity Systems."
• The problem reframe: Change how the fundamental problem is understood. A cybersecurity firm might move from "threat prevention" to creating the category of "Digital Business Continuity."
• The integration innovation: Bring together previously separate functions. A unique combination of coaching, training, and consulting services might become "Organizational Evolution Partners."

When developing these new categories, focus on making them:

• Intuitively understandable
• Demonstrably different from existing categories
• Aligned with emerging needs or values
• Difficult for competitors to credibly claim
• Capable of commanding premium pricing

Case Study Integration:

For example, when working with a SaaS client who provided customer service software, we conducted a deep dive into customer reviews. We discovered that many clients praised the software's "intuitive interface," a feature the company had downplayed. By highlighting this in their marketing, they saw a 30% increase in trial sign-ups within the first quarter. In a separate case, a small bakery was having trouble competing with larger chains. By interviewing long-time customers, it was discovered that the owner had a unique talent for creating custom cake designs. This was then used to create a niche market, and increase the bakery's profit margins.

From Insight to Implementation: The Copywriter's Role

As a copywriter or creative professional, your value isn't just in writing compelling copy—it's in being the archaeologist who uncovers strategic gold and the alchemist who transforms it into competitive advantage.

This discovery process requires:

• Intense curiosity about your client's business
• The ability to recognize patterns across seemingly unrelated information
• Skill in articulating complex advantages in simple, compelling ways
• Persistence in digging beyond surface-level differentiators
• Courage to challenge client assumptions about their own advantages

Remember: your clients are often too close to their own businesses to see what truly makes them special. Your outside perspective, combined with deliberate discovery processes, can reveal advantages hidden in plain sight.

Your Experiences: Continuing the Conversation

I'm curious: what unfair advantages have you uncovered for your clients? How did you discover them? And most importantly, how did you transform those insights into compelling positioning or category-defining innovations?

• Have you ever discovered an advantage your client was actively hiding because they didn't recognize its value?
• What questioning techniques have yielded your most valuable client insights?
• How have you helped clients leverage unfair advantages to command premium pricing?
• What's the most surprising source of competitive advantage you've uncovered?
• How have you used Sur/Petition principles to help clients transcend their categories?

Share your experiences in the comments—the collective wisdom of creative professionals is perhaps our greatest resource for continuing to evolve our approach to strategic discovery.

Final Thought: The Meta Advantage

Perhaps the greatest unfair advantage you can offer your clients is this discovery process itself—the ability to see what makes them truly special when they cannot see it themselves.

In a world where differentiation is increasingly difficult, the copywriter who masters the art of unfair advantage discovery doesn't just create better copy—they create better strategy.

Now go find your clients' gold, and don't let it slip through your fingers.

Ready to find your company's unfair advantage? Contact me today for a free consultation.