While one might have heard of nations going to war over water, or about the Indian states arguing over rivers in the highest courts of the land. Yet, somewhere along the way, a guy decided to sell water in a tallboy can with a skull on it and an entire generation lined up in ques to buy it. Welcome to Liquid Death: a festival-crowd observation (musicians pouring energy drinks into water cans so they could look rebellious while staying healthy) that became a $1.4B brand in about seven years.
And this wasn't even on water H2O chemistry, this was pure attitudinal branding. That’s the first rule of brand strategy: people don’t just buy what you sell, they buy the reason you started selling it. Take Airbnb. Two broke founders couldn’t pay their rent, so they put air mattresses on their floor and rented them out. That’s a story you can picture, and believe. Nobody remembers “an online accommodation platform.” Everyone remembers the story of two young people renting out a mattress.
Patagonia says it's in business to save our home planet, then proves it through its products and manufacturing, which is why customers who share those values stay put. Now compare that to Pepsi's Kendall Jenner ad, where the purpose was borrowed, not lived, and the internet saw straight through it. Authenticity is an expensive value that won't show up on a tagline. It's a receipt. And when 71% consumers voice saying brand trust is a buy or boycott factor(according to Edelman's 2024 Trust Barometer), then a fake why becomes that much expensive. Yes, Founders need to spend time in deciding color, logo, brand guide etc., and have someone design their instagram calendar, but ask yourself : if business vanished tomorrow, what exactly would people miss?
Once you know your why, you need a brand voice that sounds like someone, not something. Liquid Death never talks about water sourcing. It talks about "murdering your thirst," with dark, punny humor you'd recognize with the logo covered. Take Mysore Sandal Soap. For over a hundred years it has promised one thing, pure sandalwood oil, and it has never wandered off to chase trends. You could smell that brand with your eyes closed. Now take CRED. A fin-tech app for paying credit card bills sounds like the dullest product on earth, until Rahul Dravid, India’s calmest cricketer, loses it in a Bengaluru traffic jam and yells “Indiranagar ka gunda hoon main.” Instantly a meme, instantly memorable, and not a single word about interest rates. Then there’s Zerodha, a Bengaluru stockbroker that grew into one of India’s biggest by sounding like a straight-talking friend instead of a bank.
And take this gut punch every time you're trying to fix a font : if your brand sounds like every competitor, you don't have a brand, you just have a price tag that's different that others.
And you don’t have long to fix that: visual judgment forms in about 50 milliseconds, and 94% of first impressions come down to design. Make those milliseconds count, and give them a voice worth sticking around for.
So what would your customers say your business sounds like?.Brand Consistency
Now the unglamorous bit: consistency. It takes an average of 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand, and a signature color alone can boost brand recognition by up to 80%. Yet 69% of companies don't have widely adopted brand guidelines, or any at all. Think about that. While most businesses want their viewers to remember them while changing their own fonts every other Tuesday, how would that be possible?
Apple is the most recognizable brand in the world partly because its Instagram has zero product photos, only iPhone-shot lifestyle images, yet the visual tone matches its website perfectly. Steve Jobs once spoke of technology as 'marrief with liberal arts' and he wasn't describing his tech gadget but a feeling, simple, human, minimal and magical.
And look what's in your hand today and ask if that feeling has left. Apple speaks in plain lines, with their most quotable line 'Think Different' and it's the same feeling even to the latest launch ad. And it shows the same consistency even to their digital presence, Instagram is still different than most carrying the very same clean look. A brand decided who it was once, and never blinked.
But consistency doesn't mean boring. It means recognizable, and sometimes one well-aimed moment is enough to cement that. Duolingo "killed" its owl mascot, and suddenly a language app was the talk of the internet, proof that one characterful stunt can beat a traditional campaign. Have you ever wondered why you can spot a favourite packet of milk or butter on a crowded shelf without reading the label? That's not luck. That's repetition with a personality.Kapferer Brand Prism
Nice to listen to big brands, but they all started small, so, let’s audit yours.
Grab a coffee, a notebook and find a time on your clock, because this might sting a little.
French brand scholar Jean-Noël Kapferer says every brand has six sides, and customers can sense it when one side tells a different story from the rest. This is his Brand Identity Prism. Write one honest line for each side:
- Physique: What does your brand look like in the real world, from the logo and colours to the packaging and the shop?
- Personality: If your brand walked into a room, how would it talk? Like a warm uncle, a sharp friend or a bored clerk?
- Culture: Which values would you refuse to drop, even for a big order?
- Relationship: How do you treat a customer who sends a complaint on WhatsApp at 9 pm?
- Reflection: Who do people assume your customer is?
- Self-image: How does your customer feel about themselves after buying from you: smarter, prouder, looked after?
Now read your six lines top to bottom. Do they sound like one business, the way Apple or Nike feel the same on the shelf, in the ad and in your kitchen? Or does your culture say “honest” while your packaging says “cheap,” and your replies take three days?
Then fix it:
- Score each side from 1 to 5.
- Fix the lowest one first.
- Change just that one thing for 30 days.
- Ask five real customers, “What are we known for?”
Running through those six lines yourself is one thing. Having someone outside your business read them back to you, and actually tell you where they don’t line up, that’s a different exercise entirely. It’s usually the first thing we do at TekAxis, before any logo or campaign gets touched. If you want that second pair of eyes, let’s talk.
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