There’s something I’ve been hearing with increasing frequency lately. It’s passed off as common knowledge by marketing pros, bloggers and the Twitterati alike. This little nugget of marketing brilliance goes something like this: If you’re at the top, play it safe. If you’re in the middle of the pack, you have to take risks to catch the leaders.

We’ve all heard it. And from a marketing perspective, it is exactly backwards.

Every market, from diapers to dump trucks, falls into distinct tiers: the market leader and the primary challengers to the throne in the first tier, wannabes with potential in the second tier, and start-ups and also-rans in the lower tiers.

The start-ups and also-rans are full of wild cards and special cases … we’ll save them for another post. But the established first- and second-tier players have distinct roles and goals: The second tier players work like mad in an effort to claw their way up to first-tier status, while the first-tier players battle each other for slivers of market share and do their darnedest to keep the second tier in check.

The conventional wisdom says that a second-tier player should shake it up. Disrupt the market. And, from a product development standpoint, that’s right on. But from a marketing perspective, it’s exactly backwards.

Marketing is one place where second-tier players often cut corners. This results in advertising, collateral, promotions and a Web presence that are less sophisticated and compelling — and, as a result, an organization that is of a lower perceived quality. The marketing goal for second-tier players should be to look, sound, and act like the first-tier crowd. In short, dress for the customer you want. Not the customer you have.

Your product or service might be on par with the market leader, but if you’re dressing it in jeans and a hoodie instead of a nice suit, it’ll never get the attention it deserves. Clothes make the man. Marketing makes the company.

For the first-tier players, the market leaders, common sense says keep doing the things that got you there. Keep wearing that tailored suit and wingtips. But once you’re at the top, your marketing goal is to stand out, not blend in. There’s no reason to do the things that make you look like a leader because you are a leader. Everyone knows it. Now stop trying to do the things that you think leaders do and just lead.

Be the trendsetter. Be the first player in your industry to dive headfirst into mobile apps, take a novel approach to trade shows, or have a million-dollar social media budget. In short, wear the “hoodie-tuxedo.” You certainly don’t have to… but setting trends is what leaders do. And it’s what keeps them in the lead.

Taking on these roles — looking the part for second-tier players and standing out for first-tier players — goes against our basic instincts to panic when we’re behind and take it easy when we’re out in front. But a quick survey of former second-tier players that made the leap (e.g., Xbox, Tommy Hilfiger or Callaway Golf) or first-tier organizations that have managed to stay on top (e.g., Southwest Airlines, Nike, the NFL) show us that fighting those instincts can pay off in big, big ways.

Of course, if you don’t have a great product or service, none of this matters. Sorry, Zac.