Distinctiveness
Distinctiveness is what makes your brand noticed, remembered, and shortlisted when buyers are ready to act. It is not the same as differentiation. Differentiation gives people a reason to choose you. Distinctiveness gives people a reason to remember you. You need one or the other. Ideally both.
What most people mean
Most people use “distinctive” and “different” interchangeably. “We need to differentiate our brand” and “we need a distinctive brand” get treated as the same brief. The output is the same: a brainstorm about what makes us special, followed by a new colour palette and some brand guidelines nobody reads.
Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow made distinctiveness a proper concept. But most B2B marketers either haven’t read it or dismissed it as “a B2C thing.”
Where the definition breaks
Distinctiveness and differentiation are not the same thing. Confusing them leads to two common mistakes.
Mistake one: you build a genuinely differentiated product (solves an ignored struggle) but wrap it in branding so generic nobody remembers you exist. Your distinctive brand is everything you do and don’t do. Brands that stand the f*ck out tend to have something in common: there’s virtually no gap between what they say, how they’re perceived, and what they actually do.
Mistake two: you build a “distinctive” brand (cool logo, memorable name, striking visuals) but your product solves the same problems as everyone else. You get noticed. You get remembered. But when the buyer’s shortlist comes together, there’s no compelling reason to pick you over the alternatives.
There’s a fine line between being disruptive and being distinctive. I learned this when I was a cheeky 15-year-old who got called an “intellectual terrorist” by his history teacher. I was desperate for attention, and playing the devil’s advocate was my go-to move. I got noticed, of course. But when I ran for class representative, expecting an easy win, I lost by a landslide to my best friend. Disruption gets attention for all the wrong reasons at the expense of trust.
How we define it at STFO
Distinctiveness is the set of elements that make you noticed, remembered, and shortlisted. It’s Stage 3 of the STFO methodology and it’s built on four elements:
- The Monster: a semi-fictional enemy representing your segment’s struggles. Rallies people around you by giving them something to blame.
- Point of View (POV): a set of consistent messages showing you’re against the things that harm your audience. Not “thought leadership.” Consistent signals.
- Spices: the tangible actions that bring your POV to life. Talk is cheap. Spices are what you actually do.
- Assets: the meaning-free bits and bobs that make your brand uniquely yours. A colour, shape, sound, mascot, or phrase. The goal is to tickle different parts of the brain without competing with all the other crap floating around in people’s heads.
The relationship with differentiation: small brands need differentiation first (Stage 2). As businesses grow, meaningful differentiation becomes harder to achieve, which is why big brands focus on being distinctive instead. If you can’t unearth ignored struggles, it probably means you’re in a super-competitive market with no meaningful differentiation. In this case, developing a distinctive brand is your best bet to stand the f*ck out.
What it is NOT
- Not the same as differentiation (differentiation = reason to choose, distinctiveness = reason to remember)
- Not disruption (disruption alienates, distinctiveness sticks)
- Not a logo redesign
- Not “brand awareness” (awareness is the outcome, distinctiveness is the input)
- Not something only B2C brands need
"Disruption gets attention for all the wrong reasons at the expense of trust. Being distinctive allows you to stand the f*ck out without alienating others or sacrificing relationships."
From Stage 3 of Stand The F*ck Out (2024) by Louis Grenier. See also: Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow; Jenni Romaniuk, How Brands Grow Part 2.
Related terms
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Hear it discussed
The Stand The F*ck Out framework, introduced by Louis Grenier in 2024, consists of four stages: insight foraging, unique positioning, distinctive brand, and continuous reach.
