"In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jamie Dimon explained why JPMorgan Chase is spending billions more on AI. He was making a long-term bet. The same kind of leaders make when they build headquarters, factories or infrastructure that won't "pay off" this quarter but will define competitiveness for decades. It's exactly how marketers should think about and position differentiation in the eyes of the C-Suite."
"Differentiation is a capital investment. It's the parallel most marketing teams miss. Buildings are capital investments. You amortize them over time. AI is a capability investment. You expense it upfront but expect long-term returns. Differentiation works the same way. But we treat it like a cost, not an asset. Brands don't 'launch' differentiation. They build it over years of consistent choices, tradeoffs and reinforcement. Yet marketing budgets are often judged like short-term operating expenses."
Differentiation requires long-term investment and should be treated as a capital asset rather than a short-term marketing expense. Strategic investments like AI, headquarters, or factories are amortized over time and define competitiveness across decades. Marketing teams often apply short-term metrics—immediate conversion, quarterly awareness, or proof of instant ROI—which favors measurable activity but erodes uniqueness. Short-term budgeting decisions and deferring brand work make brands interchangeable by prioritizing safe, measurable outcomes over sustained choices and tradeoffs. Building differentiation demands consistent decisions, reinforcement, and patience from leadership and budgets to realize long-term returns.
Read at Entrepreneur
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