"Used to be, airlines differentiated themselves with service, but technology will now become the big differentiator," Mr. Harteveldt said.
Pretty soon, she predicts, companies may differentiate themselves with anti-gamification promotions like "No points.
"Many salesmen tried to distinguish themselves with service because they couldn't differentiate themselves with product," said Gary D. Eppen, professor of operations management at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
After all, the service would represent another revenue stream for these providers and another way to differentiate themselves with customers.
Both Mr. Reed and Ms. Borders have battled voter fatigue after the presidential election and struggled to differentiate themselves with recession-size campaign treasuries.
Brands are pulling out the stops to differentiate themselves, with Argos looking to go the opposite way to the typically heart-string pulling approach of a John Lewis with an "adrenaline-fuelled 60 seconds of extreme winter sports action".
If firms abandon trying to differentiate themselves with good service, they are making themselves vulnerable to the sort of attack Britain's mainstream supermarkets are now suffering from an invasion of German discounters.
Despite the attempts by companies like Spotify to differentiate themselves with more social functionality and music-discovery features, there just seem to be too many similar services on the market.
Beyond these lifestyle services, Asian banks are trying to differentiate themselves with the design and decoration of the offices that receive their clients, sending other understated signals to their clients that they are Asia-focused.
John Wick is like this fantasy on the screen, because he just takes care of business so the directors have differentiated themselves with the vision, the architecture, the cameras, the colours, the costumes.
