Most products are commodities. Yet, in this commoditised world many planners and creatives try to communicate product uniqueness.

”There’s nothing unique about this product” is a too common stated that results in frustration or in advertising that is irrelevant.

Relevance and differentiation are of course still important objectives of communication, but they don’t necessarily have to be based on product relevance. The important thing, after all, is the goal – to sell more stuff.

It’s time to bury the benefit ladder thinking.

As I see it strategic planning carry much of the responsibility of advertising thinking. If we are determined to base advertising on dramatising product features, we will always have the problem of products that are commodities.

What’s the alternative? The answer is philosophical:

German philosopher Immanuel Kant concluded that we can know nothing about things as they are themselves. We can only know the world of appearances. In other worlds, objects have no inherent properties beyond the ones provided by our senses.

And even modern-day science tries to redefines what everything is actually made up of.

What does this mean in practice for brand thinking?

Most importantly, there’s only one reality, the one perceived by the beholder. There’s no absolute truth or arguments, only the perception of it.

Does this mean we can communicate whatever we want? No, but freeing ourselves of product benefit thinking and embracing the fact that perception is everything means we also can reframe the role of communications. We can create alternative brand propositions that aren’t based on product propositions and by doing so we find ways of connecting with people in new and meaningful ways.