Beige like the rainbow

Why differentiation matters

Beige beige beige

Beige interior decoration, homes that look like corporate hotels. Beige direct-to-consumer brands that mimic The Row’s hyper-expensive casual minimalism in a cascade of decreasing prices, from Toteme down to Everlane. Beige AI ads, thanks Coca-Cola. Hayley DeRoche’s so-funny-so-true “sad beige children” memes.

You’ve seen it and you know it.

In his book Blank Space, cultural commentator W. David Marx points to a beigification of culture that defines the first quarter of the 21st century: a cultural “blank space” full of reboots (oh hi the 90s), reissues (is that you, Fendi baguette bag?) and beige, where boldness, risk and experimentation are no longer rewarded.

In parallel, with the tribal echo chambers created by social networks and the rise of right wing politics, we seem to all be increasingly polarised but united in our fear of saying the wrong thing to our tribe, and being cast out. And brands have followed suit. Or rather, beige has followed suit.

Who can recognise themselves in this culture, where everything feels the same, but cheaper, worse, more ubiquitous and less satisfying? The enshitification of our lives, to misquote Cory Doctorow. A beige homogenisation.

And how to explain the fast fashion, the disappearance of the climate conversation, the rollbacks on virgin plastic use and net-zero promises? ESG was mentioned in 40% of S&P 100 report titles in 2023, down to 6% in 2025. We are seemingly unable to take a principled stand and follow through.

To bring this diatribe back to work: we know that brands need to be differentiated in order to gain traction, but the space available for differentiation seems ever narrower. So how can we truly stand out? And what is the risk we take, when we take a principled stand?

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Doing the work

When we do brand work, in every workshop, similar words often come up: cool, fun, excellent, best-in-class, different, transforming, innovative. Our job, as strategist, is to help go well past these, and understand what these words mean, really. Let’s talk, let’s unpick. Let’s not let AI do the work for us. You can’t find the thing that makes you, you, by typing something into an LLM. And the same goes for brands.

This is the craft of building a brand. You don’t really need a model or a framework or some aphorisms from a guy with cool hair on LinkedIn.

You need thinking, researching, reflecting. You need to understand the culture and your tribe. And you need to be brave. Have cut through. Be who you want to be. If you always behave in a way that pleases everyone, you won’t make anyone happy, least of all yourself.

And believe me, I should know. As an incorrigible people-pleaser myself, I have found it achingly difficult to do for myself what I preach to my clients they should do: position my work, talk about my values, risk displeasing some in order to achieve actual cut-through.

Discomfort: Finding meaning in difference

I’m in love with real, actual communities. Real life encounters, talking to strangers. I’m in love with people who do the hard work of craft, with the handmade, the things others have touched. I’m in love with the brands that make me feel something, the frisson of discomfort when you hit on something actually new.

That’s the first thing that usually happens, when you encounter something that is different: you feel a bit uncomfortable. It’s a tell-tale sign, and staying with that discomfort is the key to opening a rich seam of creative work. It’s a natural instinct to shy away from the things that make us uncomfortable, but we must resist it - for all our sakes (much beyond brand-building!)

So what are the things that you find uncomfortable in your business? Where are the problem areas? Where are there tensions and friction? Stay with those, and think, if your business were a person, how would you like them to behave? Can your brand help guide your business decisions?

The key to a strong brand is not just how it shows up, all covered in sparkles and rainbows (hey Taylor Swift), but how that brand influences everything the business does. What are the core values by which employees are hired? How does the business let go of its employees? How does the business conduct deals? Who does it partner with? How is the product packaged? Who sets the mood in a meeting? What do the accounting reports look like?

All of these affect and build the brand as much as a style guide and brand deck do. Consistency isn’t just a font, a colour palette and a logo, it’s a set of behaviours, codes, values, every single touchpoint laddering up to an experience of brand that is much more than the sum of its parts.

A brand is a whole world to explore. What fun. Let’s not make it beige.

Thought starters and questions to help guide your brand thinking:

• What does the business stand for? What does it want to be remembered for? Write down some imaginary newspaper headlines about the business, 5-10 years from now - some best case scenarios (you’ve achieved all your ambitions and more) and some worst case scenarios (you’ve had a PR disaster, someone in your team has been discovered to be guilty of fraud). What do these headlines tell you about where you need to be now?
  

• Inhabit the brand: if the brand were a person, what would it be like? How would it be different from you? Would the brand take a political stance? Why, or why not? If the brand was firing you, what would it say, and how? Be very aware that the brand is not you: many founders often confuse their brand with their identity, and that can get knotty, quickly.

  

• Project forward: what is your brand’s risk profile, and what are the pros and cons of your brand’s stance? Does it put your business at risk? How far are you willing to go, in pursuit of your purpose or ambition? If it all went wrong because you took a principled stand, what would happen? What if you hadn’t taken that road?
  

• What makes you feel uncomfortable about your business? What are you not sure about? Where are there conflicts of values, of ways of working, or uncertainty? Do you need to make some hard decisions? Has innovation stalled? Are you unsure about team structure? Is commercial activity not working for you? And does having the lens of brand help resolve these or start to carve a path to resolution? If not, your brand probably isn’t strong enough.