Why your brand sounds like everyone else
Open five websites in your category. Cover the logos. If you can't tell which one is yours, your customers can't either.
Try a small experiment. Open five websites from your category, cover the logos and read the first line of each one out loud. Passionate. Innovative. Customer-first. Trusted by thousands. If you can't tell which one is yours, your customers can't either.
This isn't laziness. It's what happens when sensible people make sensible decisions, one at a time, until nothing interesting is left.
Sameness is the safe choice
Every category has a way it's supposed to sound. Banks sound reassuring. Skincare sounds scientific. Tech sounds like it was written by the product itself. Borrowing that voice feels low-risk, because nobody ever got fired for sounding like the market leader.
But the market leader can afford to be forgettable. They have the budget to be everywhere. You don't, which means every line you publish has to work harder than theirs.
If a competitor could sign their name under your sentence, it isn't your sentence yet.
Three ways to find your own voice
- Write down what you'd never say. A brand is easier to hear once you know what it refuses to sound like.
- Listen to how your best customers describe you. Their words are usually plainer, funnier and more specific than yours.
- Pick an opinion. Not a controversy, just a clear view on how things should be done in your category.
None of this needs a rebrand. It needs a decision, and then the discipline to keep making the same decision in every caption, email and headline for a year.
The test
Before anything goes out, cover the logo. If the line could belong to anyone, send it back. It's a slightly annoying habit, and it's the cheapest piece of brand strategy you'll ever run.
