20th century  marketing tools have their place, in the 20th century; they will be progressively less effective as we progress through the 21st. Mass media, mass distribution, superficial differentiation,  and all the rest are failing to excite in the 21st.

You need to do more than, not just more of.

Apple has done a great job over 30 years, and particularly the last 10 of engaging consumers, often to the point of illogical connection  to and engagement with, the brand, and they have done it again with their “friend store” designed to ensure once you become an Apple user, you  do not leave.

Contrast Apple to the boring, sterile, and just plain ordinary marketing executed by their competitors in computing, telephony, and music devices, and the value of “more than” becomes obvious. Apple in fact sells things that do not really fall into these simplistic manufacturing designated categories, they redefine the boundaries of their products, and the way they market by being committed and passionate, as well as different.

As you consider how to attack the challenges of the new year, think “more than” rather than just more of the same.