When you walk through almost any supermarket and you’ll notice something changing. The signals we once associated with premium brands are now everywhere: softer colour palettes, refined typography, better ingredients and stories of provenance, wellness and care.
This should be good news for brands. Consumer expectations have risen and shoppers increasingly want products that feel considered, trustworthy and worth bringing into their homes.
The challenge is that many brands now look premium in similar ways. When the same visual and verbal cues become commonplace, they stop creating distinction. As a result, many brands struggle to earn something more valuable than approval: attention.
The products that genuinely make us pause are rarely just the most polished. More often, they bring an unexpected perspective. Heinz’s Marry Me Pasta Sauce injects humour into a crowded category. Dorset Cereals uses colour in a way competitors don’t. Pip & Nut has a personality that’s unmistakably its own.
Because before we compare prices, ingredients or claims, we make a much faster decision: is this worth noticing? Premium creates credibility. But differentiation creates memory. Consumers increasingly expect brands to look premium. But brands need more than that – they need to be distinctive sticky and memorable.
Premium may now be the price of entry. Differentiation still takes an Unordinary idea.
