Recently I was shopping at my local supermarket,picking up lunch fixings for my office, when I took a detour down the craft beer aisle. You know, like you do.

One beer in particular caught my eye. One Eye Gosefrom Ass Clown Brewing Company. I thought the name of the company was funny. It was very different from all the others.

Then it got me to thinking…

What can we learn from Ass Clown?

The craft beer industry provides an interestingmetaphor for any person/company/organization whose goal is to stand out and get noticed.

Craft breweries tend to be small businesses, operatingin just one city, or maybe a few cities in one state. And in a place like Raleigh, North Carolina, where I live, beer lovers have their choice of maybe 100 breweries, either locally or from nearby cities.

They have a massive amount of competition, and that’snot even considering the giant, global beer makers. But because they’re small companies, they’re marketing budgets are miniscule.

So the best way for them to stand out is with theirnames. In a never-ending game of one-upmanship, each brewery tries to be more clever, funny, and even inappropriate than the next, all in a desperate attempt to win the attention of consumers.

The good news for you

In marketing, people like me often lament somethingcalled the Sea of Sameness, in which companies use marketing messages that make them indistinguishable from their competitors.

In craft brewing, it’s the opposite. It’s an industryin which everyone is trying like hell to be different. It might be the only industry where the Sea of Sameness doesn’t exist.

But chances are you don’t work in the craft beerbusiness. You probably work in something like medical technology, equipment manufacturing, management consulting, or one of the countless other B2B categories that others might call “boring,” but actually make the world go around.

If so, I have good news! You don’t have to declareyourself an ass clown to stand out from the crowd.

You just have to not be afraid to be yourself.