People pay for Feelings. Not jam.

We’ve known the golden rule of advertising for decades, yet I still watch brilliant founders sabotage their own brand positioning.

They come to me with detailed USPs listing every feature, specification, and functional benefit. They’re convinced that if they just explain their product well enough, customers will choose them.

But here’s what’s actually happening while they perfect their feature lists: People are buying STORIES, FEELINGS, and IDENTITIES from their competitors.

Successful brand differentiation strategies don’t focus on WHAT the product does - they focus on WHO the customer becomes when they use it.

/ Liquid Death didn’t win by talking about water purity. They won by making hydration feel rebellious.

/ My beloved Thermomix didn’t capture my heart with engineering specs (though honestly, that machine ranks up there with space rockets!). They sold me on becoming the mom who can whip up pumpkin risotto or butter chicken like nobody’s business, even tho the kitchen is usually not my happy place.

/ Or the most recent example: MEGHAN MARKLE’s jam. American Riviera Orchard isn't about fruit quality or preservation methods.

They’re doing a phenomenal job of selling the feeling of elevated entertaining, of being part of Meghan’s picture perfect fairy tale home life in a gorgeous sun-drenched kitchen. (It’s kind of the perfect antidote to real events right now).

This is the shift that separates successful branding from the graveyard of “better” products that nobody bought.

Stop asking “What does my product do?” Start asking “How do my customers want to FEEL when they use this?”

Because FEELINGS are what people actually pay for. Everything else is just commodity.