WHEN YOUR BRAND HAS A TWIN – AND IT’S STEALING YOUR SALES.

Ever reached for Lurpak – and left with its budget-friendly doppelgänger, Nordpak? Same vibe, different tribe. Congratulations, you’ve witnessed Mistaken Identity, the tragicomedy of brands that blend in.

It’s what happens when everyone in the aisle is yelling in the same font.

BLENDING IN IS BLEEDING OUT 

There’s a strange paradox in marketing. The more you blend in, the more you have to spend.

If your assets don’t stand out, your media budget becomes an expensive game of hide-and-seek. You’re buying reach but renting attention – at Wonga-level interest rates.

Why? Because the brain is lazy. Or rather, it’s efficient. It uses System 1 thinking – the fast, intuitive, automatic bit – to make most purchase decisions. If your brand doesn’t create instant recognition, it doesn’t get picked. It gets bypassed.

Here’s the science bit (but with less white coat energy). Ads with strong branding and emotional relevance earn more attention, hold it longer, and stick in your brain like that earworm from the Just Eat advert. They drive recall. And ROI. And that satisfying buzz when you see it cut through in the real world.

WHEN BRAND BECOMES BACKGROUND NOISE

As categories speed up and fill out, everything starts looking … familiar. Toothpastes talk about ‘whitening power’. Drinks whisper ‘refreshment’. Skincare promises the moon on a moisturising stick. The result? A Love Island line-up.

And when everything is saying the same thing, our brains tune it all out. This is called semantic satiation – when repeated language starts to lose its meaning.

Shoppers don’t have time to play spot the difference. They grab the thing that looks like the thing they wanted. And just like that, you’ve been mistaken for a knockoff of yourself.

THE ACCIDENTAL ART OF INVISIBILITY 

No brand sets out to blend in. It usually happens by accident. But the signs are easy to spot:

• Overusing category clichés. 

Just because everyone else is wearing sage green doesn’t mean you have to.

• Packaging with commitment issues.
  When hierarchy goes missing, so does clarity.
• A tone of voice that changes with the weather.
  Sassy one minute, sales pitch the next.
• Sub-lines and product variants that sound like a committee named them.
  Because they probably did.

It’s not just messy. It’s cognitively taxing. And when something takes too much mental effort, our brains file it under ‘ignore’.

GET FAMOUS FOR YOUR FINGERPRINTS 

The good news? You don’t need a full rebrand. Just a refresher course in what makes you unmistakable.

Get clear. Get confident. Get loud with the assets that set you apart.

• Codify your codes. Know your assets. Name them. Worship them a little. (This taps into memory structures – mental shortcuts people use to find you faster).
• Let your packaging lead with the headline act. Because the shelf isn’t a treasure hunt.
• Make your tone of voice sound like a real voice. (Ideally not Siri on sedatives).
• Treat colour, shape and ritual not as window dressing, but as calling cards. These are your distinctive assets – and they’re more powerful than a discount sticker. 

Think less tick box, more mic drop. 

BE FINDABLE. BE UNFORGETTABLE. 

• Mental availability means they remember you.
• Physical availability means they find you.
• Distinctive assets are the bridge between the two.

You’re not just building a brand. You’re building shortcuts in people’s brains. So when they reach for something, it’s you, not your lookalike – they instinctively grab.

It’s not rocket science. It’s branding science. And when your brand and shopper marketing are working in sync, you don’t just win attention. You win sales. Possibly awards. Definitely smug PowerPoint slides.

WHO’S DOING IT RIGHT?

Snacks: Pringles doubled down on the ‘tache and tube. One brand block, instantly snackable.

Drinks: Innocent’s tone is as sticky as their smoothies. And ten times more nourishing.

Personal care: Estrid’s pastel power move made razors feel like design objects. Sharp, in every sense.

All these brands didn’t invent new wheels. They just cleaned the windscreen. Clarity, consistency, confidence. That’s the game.

THE LUNAR POV

We’re not here to add more noise. We’re here to tune your brand to the right frequency. We help you sharpen the signals that matter. So you don’t just get seen – you get chosen.

Chosen by name. Not by accident.