The most successful brands don't compete on features—they compete by being unmistakably different.
In today's newsletter:
- Why most brands fail to stand out (and what to do about it)
- The counterintuitive strategy that helped one brand boost sales by 50%
- Three case studies of billion-dollar pattern-breakers
- A tactical framework you can implement immediately
Different beats "better." Let's see how it works in practice.
– Kevin
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When Everyone Looks the Same, Do the Opposite
Have you ever walked down a grocery aisle and felt your eyes glaze over at the wall of nearly identical products? That's exactly the problem Brooklyn-based ice cream brand, Van Leeuwen, was facing.
What do you notice about the ice cream brands below?
Van Leeuwen couldn't stand out in this crowded landscape. Their packaging blended in with competitors, making them practically invisible to consumers despite their premium product.
The Solution That Transformed Their Business
In 2017, Van Leeuwen worked with vaunted design agency, Pentagram, to redesign their brand identity and packaging. Sales jumped 50% within months after introducing their new look.
Van Leeuwen stripped away:
- Cluttered visuals fighting for attention
- Maximalist "word-art" style fonts
- Ice cream, cow, and ingredient imagery
Insight: Before the redesign, Van Leeuwen's packaging had another critical flaw – the colors of their cartons didn't signify the flavors inside. Their chocolate ice cream came in a yellow carton, while other flavors had completely different looks with little brand consistency. The redesign not only simplified, it also created a cohesive system where colors related to flavors.
The Pattern-Breaking Formula
To be clear, the takeaway isn't just to "go minimal." It's about studying what everyone in your category is doing—and deliberately doing the opposite. If everyone in your niche is already going minimal, you might need to go maximalist to stand out. The key is spotting the pattern and doing something different. As Marty Neumeier puts it in his book ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands: "When everybody zigs, zag."
When to go maximalist: When Hims and Hers hit the scene in 2017, their distinctive pastel color palette and clean design was unique. Today, countless brands have emulated their identity. So if you're launching a direct-to-consumer healthcare, skincare, or haircare product in 2025, the pattern-breaking move might be to go bold and maximalist rather than following the minimal trend.
Case Study: Graza Olive Oil
Full video on Linkedin
Traditional olive oil brands come in glass bottles with earth-toned labels, gold accents, and imagery of Mediterranean landscapes.
Graza took one look at this pattern and broke it:
- Bright neon squeeze bottles that look more like condiments
- Playful, simple typography
- Practical design that improved the user experience
The result? Heads turned, sales took off, and they've achieved a $240M valuation.
Functional Innovation: Graza's squeeze bottles weren't just about looking different—they solved a real problem. Professional chefs have long used squeeze bottles for olive oil because they offer precision and control. Graza brought this practical solution to home cooks while creating a distinctive brand identity.
Case Study: Liquid Death
When you think of packaged water, you picture clear plastic bottles with blue labels and images of mountains or springs, right?
Liquid Death said f**k that 🤘:
- Aluminum cans typically reserved for beer or energy drinks
- Heavy metal-inspired branding
- Edgy messaging that speaks to a completely different audience
This departure from category norms is, in large part, responsible for their $1.4B valuation.
Social Context: Like Graza, Liquid Death's success isn't purely attributed to design. For non-drinkers at concerts, bars, and social events, holding a Liquid Death can feels similar to holding a beer, allowing people to blend in while staying hydrated—solving a problem other water brands never considered.
Case Study: Notion
While other productivity tools like Asana and Trello embraced rainbow-colored interfaces, notifications, and feature-packed dashboards, Notion went in the opposite direction:
- Black and white color scheme
- Clean, minimal interface
- Playful illustrations for brand textures
- Focus on customization rather than out-of-the-box features
The result? An instantly recognizable product that defined a category and has subsequently amassed a $10B valuation.
Category Creator: Notion's minimal black-and-white approach has become so influential that numerous tools now emulate its aesthetic. Products like Capacities and Coda have emerged with interfaces that look like close replicas of Notion's clean design, showing how successful pattern-breakers often create new standards others follow.
When Your "Zag" becomes everyone else's "Zig"
When brands successfully break a pattern and scale, they create a new standard that others will inevitably follow. The innovators pave the way, and followers pile on. We've seen this with Graza's squeeze bottles now being copied by established brands, and with Notion's aesthetic influencing countless productivity tools.
Your Pattern-Breaking Action Plan
The formula is remarkably simple: Look at what everyone else is doing, do something different.
To implement this in your business:
- Audit your category: Collect examples of competitors' branding, packaging, or interfaces. Look at your cateogory's product page on Amazon. Walk the shelves at your local grocery store.
- Identify the pattern: What specific design choices, colors, form factors, messaging approaches, or features are universal in your space? These are your opportunities to differentiate.
- Deliberately break the pattern: Choose at least one significant element to invert or reimagine. Remember, sometimes less is more—but if everyone's going minimal, you might need to go bold.
- Make it distinctive enough: You don't need to overhaul everything. Clay.com differentiated itself with unique brand textures layered throughout an otherwise standard SaaS website. Find your signature element and execute it well.
- Stay ahead of copycats: Once others start emulating your approach, look for fresh ways to differentiate again.
The Bottom Line
Pattern-breaking isn't just about aesthetics—you have to have a good product, distribution, messaging, etc. too. But all things being equal, when consumers face overwhelming choice, the brand that stands apart often has the advantage.
What category patterns could you break in your business? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
- Kevin
P.S. If you need help with your brand positioning, check out the 2025 Demand Curve Growth Program. 25% off through April 30th.
Something fun
Not all copycats get to ride the wave. Nice try Evil Juice.
