As a luxury real estate marketing professional, if you want to challenge a market leader in your area, the last thing you want to do is imitate the incumbent. This is one of those branding traps that even some of the biggest brands fall into and get nowhere as a result. Originality and distinctiveness is the route to market leadership. As a challenger, your best bet is to take the opposite position as the market leader or else "own" (excel at) the attribute that represents your competitor's greatest weakness.

In a previous post, we pointed out how Pepsi has slipped to the #3 soft drink and is desparately trying to get back in the race. They went after the strong association that Coke established over years with Santa in their ads. Now, they are going after the polar bear, one of Coke's least successful ad campaidns. What is Pepsi thinking?

As we mentioned in that last post, Pepsi has forgotten the brand position that made them a strong number 2 brand: Appealing to the younger generation. We are hoping, for Pepsi's sake, that their sponsorship of the American X Factor reality show that debuts in the fall will get them back on track. But, for now, they have fallen into the imitation trap.

Check out the older commercial from Coke and the latest Pepsi commercial and judge for yourself. You may like the commercial. But, form a branding standpoint, imitation is by far the worst way to challenge a market leader.

This blog posting has been provided by Ron and Alexandra Seigel, the Language of Luxury Community Founders and managing partners of Napa Consultants, International, the leading luxury real estate strategic marketing firm. They specialize in personal and company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing. Pictures provided by Ron and Alexandra.