Let’s keep this simple. If nobody notices you, you’ve got a problem. If people notice you but don’t actually find the brand appealing, you’ve got a problem as well. The strongest brands solve both.
The trouble is that most categories slowly drift towards sameness. Everyone starts making the same claims, using the same language and chasing the same trends. Look at insurance, banking or holidays. Everybody promises great service, value and trust. It feels safe because nobody is taking a risk. But safe doesn’t create much interest, and it rarely creates growth either.
The conventional marketing advice is to be different. And that’s true, up to a point. If consumers can’t distinguish you from the competition, you’re unlikely to be remembered or considered. But being distinctive on its own isn’t enough. Consumers don’t buy brands simply because they’re different. They buy brands they find appealing. The brands that grow are the ones that combine both.
The brands that grow do two things well
This is where Audience Collective’s Brand Divergence Index (BDI) comes in. BDI has shown us that two factors have a particularly strong relationship with market share: Difference and Attraction.
Difference is about whether people see you as genuinely distinct from the rest of the category. Attraction is about whether people are drawn towards your brand and inclined to choose it. It’s closely linked to measures like consideration, preference and purchase intent.
To develop BDI, we surveyed 9,000 UK consumers across 214 brands in 13 categories, generating more than a million data points. What we found was that the strongest brands aren’t just distinctive. They’re attractive too. Brands that stand apart from the crowd are often the same brands consumers are more likely to consider and buy. Difference helps brands get noticed. Attraction helps turn that attention into consideration and choice.
BDI identifies four broad types of brands. Some are attractive but not especially distinctive. We call these Convergent Brands. Others are distinctive but struggle to convert that into demand. These are Deviant Brands. Then there are Default Brands, which score weakly on both measures. The strongest performers are Divergent Brands. Brands like Sony, Tanqueray and TUI combine both qualities. They’re distinctive enough to get noticed and attractive enough to drive consideration, preference and choice.
The sweet spot
The strongest brands understand that Attraction and Difference work together. Attraction is the end goal. Difference is often the route to getting there. Being different gets you onto the shortlist. Attraction gets you chosen.
Take Monzo. It didn’t just make banking look different. It made banking feel easier, more intuitive and more human. The app was simple to use, the experience felt refreshingly straightforward and the coral card became something people genuinely wanted in their pocket. The result wasn’t just attention. It was a brand more people wanted to switch to.
Oatly pulled off something similar. In a category dominated by functional claims and worthy sustainability messaging, it brought humour, personality and a clear point of view. But the difference worked because consumers liked what the brand was offering. It built appeal as well as awareness.
The opposite can happen too. Liquid Death is often held up as a masterclass in differentiation. It’s certainly distinctive and has generated huge amounts of attention. But it’s also a useful reminder that standing out and being widely chosen are not the same thing. Attention matters, but on its own it doesn’t guarantee consumer demand.
That’s the thing many businesses miss. Nobody buys a brand simply because it’s unusual. The point of Difference isn’t to be different for the sake of it. It’s to create a brand people are more likely to consider, prefer and choose.
Why Divergent Brands win
BDI research found that brands scoring strongly on both Difference and Attraction are more likely to command greater value share within their category. Standing out matters. But so does creating genuine consumer pull.
Too many businesses focus on becoming a slightly better version of everybody else. Others become obsessed with differentiation for its own sake. The strongest brands avoid both traps. They build distinctive positions that make them easier to notice, while creating the kind of attraction that drives consideration and purchase.
That’s what the most powerful brands do. They don’t just give people a reason to notice them. They give people a reason to choose them.
Want to know more? Click here to join us on June 16th at the Marketing Meetup in Leeds where we will do a deep dive into the BDI data, sharing the evidence, examples and practical lessons behind the research.
