An evidence-based view on distinctiveness vs. differentiation, and why they are both equally important for a brand to improve marketing effectiveness.

Brand awareness is in every survey. Yet, despite its popularity, it’s a metric that leaves room for interpretation; it often feels like the blank nod you give to someone whose words you haven’t really heard.

Instead, asking consumers to rate a brand (and its competitors) against your chosen attributes – the ones you’ve decided to push – will signal to your brand: ‘noted’. ‘I know what you look like’, ‘get what you stand for’. Arguably, distinctiveness and knowing how to answer our clients’ frequently asked question: ‘how can I make my brand more distinctive?’, is one of the greatest challenges for brands.

In this article, we argue that ‘being different’ has legs, largely thanks to its connection to pricing power and business profit. Driven by our empirical data, we support that a distinctive brand will pivot to growth if it’s different too.