Being a ‘me-too’ brand is more desirable than it sounds

If brands had feelings, the unkindest epithet you could deploy about any one of them would be ‘me too’. That would hurt – like commenting on your fashion-conscious friend’s ‘sensible shoes’.

Brands, as any sentient member of the species would guardedly attest, are supposed to be differentiated, disruptive, revolutionary: always actively shaking things up. In that context the snippet ‘me-too brand’, heard from a member of the marketer or agency team, would come over less like a description than a diagnosis.

That’s not how it looks from the consumer’s point of view, though. The ‘levelling up’ of brands within a category is a sign of competition at work. If brand A makes a meaningful improvement, brands B and C have little option but to follow suit. With the three once more on a par, the only way for any one to steal the consumer’s affections is to innovate again – ensuring the continuous improvement that marketplace competition brings.

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