What Makes a Brand Memorable?
Words that actually mean something.
So… it’s January. I love the feeling of a fresh new year (plus a cozy holiday break never hurts!) but to be totally honest, I mostly hate the energy of the internet around this time.
My inbox + feed are nearly 100%...
Yearly predictions
FOMO stuff about income
Weight-loss related content (WHY are we still doing this, it is 20-freaking-25)
All the different flavors of “hit the ground running”/ make plans/ get organized/ etc
And if I hear the “Messy” trending audio one more time I might actually lose my mind.
This year in particular (I’m telling you, “Messy” really sent me over the edge 😆), I just felt like my brain broke. “Brain rot” is currently a trending phrase for a reason!!
As I scrolled, my eyes glazed over and my brain felt like the last dregs of honey being squeezed from the honeybear–gloooop blep blep blepppp.
Numb/ glazed over/ not paying attention is NOT the vibe that any of us are trying to create with our businesses, and yet we so often do. Why?
Why So Many of Us Are Replicating Sameness
Let's talk about why you're seeing the same damn website or Instagram grid everywhere you look.
You know the one: The neutral color palette that's basically fifty shades of beige. That one swoopy font that's supposed to help you look expensive and refined and successful. The Reels that all use the same trending audio with the same hook.
And let's not forget the copy. We see the same words (elevated, authentic, timeless, aligned, strategic, etc etc etc), the same in-one-minute, out-the-next slang, the same vague phrases that kind of say something but not quite—what does it really mean to transform your business???
But this isn’t all happening because we’re fundamentally lazy or uncreative (though sometimes our brains do take the path of least resistance, and we'll get to that). There are some really freaking strong psychological principles at work, so I am in *no* way shaming your brand design or copywriting!
A peek behind the scenes explains it all.
FAMILIAR FEELS SAFE + SUCCESSFUL
Have you heard of the “mere exposure effect”? It’s pretty self explanatory—basically, the more we see something, the more we like it. It's why you ended up downloading Notion after seeing 47 "my minimal productivity setup" videos. It's why that sans serif + swoopy font combo feels "right" for your rebrand.
Social proof is one hell of a drug. When everyone in your industry is doing something, it starts to feel like the "professional" choice. It's easy to think, "Well, if it's working for them..."
WE’RE WIRED FOR CONFORMITY
Before we were all desk gargoyles, our lil prehistoric selves survived by fitting in with the group. Standing out meant potential danger. (This might also have been true in, say, your high school. 👀)
That’s why it feels like a risk to try something different! The bandwagon effect is real. If you’ve ever found yourself typing “It’s giving ____” or “In my ____ era” even though you’ve never actually said that out loud, your brain has just subtly been picking up what other people have been putting down and trying to keep you safe in the in-crowd.
(Yes, typing “in-crowd” definitely just made me feel like a high school guidance counselor in the LEAST cool way.)
…AND WE FEAR BEING JUDGED
“Playing it safe” (whether consciously or not) is SUCH a normal choice to make. Let’s be honest—putting yourself out there as a business owner is a vulnerable thing!! We’re constantly worried that in some way we’re too much and in another way we’re not enough. And we’re surrounded at basically all times with extensive info about what everyone else is doing, which means we’re pretty damn aware of what the status quo is and how we’d stick out if we did something different.
Wanna know the fancy term for that? “Evaluation apprehension”—fear of being judged. I guarantee you that your own clients feel it too!
AND ALL OF THIS KEEPS US STUCK IN A BORING CYCLE
The more we see the same stuff, the more our brains get lazy about looking for alternatives. It's like when you've ordered the same thing at Sweetgreen so many times that you forget there are other options on the menu. You forget to even READ the menu!
It’s called “cognitive laziness,” which, tbh, is kind of a rude term because YOU aren’t lazy—but in this mode, your brain has kind of numbed out. Seeing something over and over makes your brain think that’s the only option or best practice… hence why "magnetic" and "aligned" and "high-vibe" are the only words swimming in your head to describe what you do.
And as you might have guessed, there’s a big freaking downside to all of this repetition and regurgitation.
Inside the World of Brain Drain Same-Same
So doing the same thing makes us feel safe. Which is a nice feeling!
But… it also means that your ideal clients may be tuning you the f out. And tuning you out means tuning out your ideas, your offers, your expertise… all the great stuff you bring to the table. And also—your ability to make money.
WE’RE GLAZING OVER (AND SADLY, WE’RE NOT KRISPY KREMES)
When we see the same thing over and over, our brains start treating it like background noise. Habituation at its finest! Think about the last time you were psyched to see a “5 Steps to…” or “Top 3 Tips for…” carousel. It’s just not that exciting. It barely even registers.
Same with generic headlines that aren’t BAD, necessarily, but just don’t really give you anything memorable to latch onto.
Elevate your business with organized systems.
Timeless wedding photography that captures your love story.
Live your most aligned life.
I mean… sure, I guess? 🤷🏻♀️
The average person now processes as much as 74 GB of information per day. This is BONKERS. We’re exhausted! Living creatures weren’t designed for this! So we’re wired to conserve energy by filtering out the stuff that feels predictable or repetitive.
Which means boring headline → brain power-save mode. Something must be memorable in order for your reader to stay switched on.
SAMENESS KILLS CREATIVITY (AND CURIOSITY)
Beyond just making us tune things out, overwhelming sameness actually changes how we think and create. (Which, imo, is horrifying!! We ARE creatives!!!!)
If you only ever ate grape nut ice cream, eventually your taste buds would just kinda quit. You'd forget that other flavors exist. You'd stop imagining new combinations, stop wondering what else is possible.
The same thing happens with creative thinking. When every business account follows the same formula, uses the same phrases, creates the same content, we start to believe that's the only way to do things. Our own creative muscles become couch potatoes. We forget how to think outside the template, how to trust our weird ideas, how to follow our creative instincts.
Think about it: When's the last time you felt genuinely intrigued about a business that promised to help you "uplevel your mindset" or "scale with soul"? When's the last time one of those posts made you think about something in a new way, or sparked an interesting idea, if both the idea AND the copy weren’t actually interesting??
We’re listening to elevator music and creating elevator music. (But we’re gonna talk about how to change this in a sec, I promise!! It’s not all doom and gloom!)
AND THIS ALL DEAD-ENDS IN DECISION PARALYSIS
When everything looks and sounds the same, potential clients end up in this weird paralysis where they can't make a decision at all.
It's like when you open Netflix and spend 45 minutes scrolling because nothing stands out enough to make you click play. (Except instead of choosing a show, they're trying to choose someone to give their money to.)
If there’s no one who stands out, chances are pretty good that they get bored, give up, and don’t choose anyone.
But if there’s someone who DOES stand out??? Well, they’re gonna choose the heck out of them. And I want that someone to be you!!!
Being Memorable is Gonna Be Absolutely Unskippable in 2025 and Beyond
Here's what I find fascinating about “standing out” (another sort of vague term, to be honest!) It's not actually about being loud or weird or different for the sake of being different. It's about making your business feel like a real, interesting, textured, nuanced place run by a human with those same qualities.
(Here’s a whole blog post on the very topic of standing out if you wanna fall down that particular rabbit hole!)
STANDING OUT SPARKS ACTUAL INTEREST
It’s probably common sense that we remember things that are different, whether it’s the sparkly shoes that someone wore at a party, the only pink car on the highway, or a song with a lyric that hits you RIGHT in the feels.
(In case you’re curious, this bit of common sense is called the Von Restorff Effect. The more you know!)
And the cool thing about this is that you don’t even need to be THAT different in order to benefit. Just choose somewhere, anywhere, to be thoughtful where others are automatic.
Remember the examples of generic headlines I shared earlier?
What if “Elevate your business with organized systems” was “For entrepreneurs who are tired of playing hide-and-seek with their own files”?
What if “Timeless wedding photography that captures your love story” said “Wedding photography for couples who want real memories over magazine spreads”?
What if “Live your most aligned life” became “Because 'finding yourself' shouldn't feel like solving a cosmic Rubik's cube”?
See how there’s something else there? Some little morsel of creativity, a unique word or two, a phrase that’s not familiar to your eye/ear, some humor, a sense of identity, something? That right there can immediately begin to tilt the memorability scale in your favor.
And the thing about genuine memorability is that it creates a snowball effect. When someone actually remembers you, they're more likely to come back. To mention you to a friend. To think of you first when they need what you do.
MEMORABILITY BUILDS REAL TRUST
The interesting thing about authenticity (and I know we're all tired of that word, but stay with me) is that it's actually the opposite of what most people think. It doesn’t have to be about being “messy” or vulnerable, and it doesn’t = fun facts, either.
It’s about having the confidence to say things in a way that actually means something. To have opinions and ideas with teeth, with stakes, with belief and purpose and some fire behind them (even if it’s a little flame!). To write in a way that feels like a human being actually chose every word, not just remixed what everyone else is saying.
That creates credibility. Differentiation. A body of work. Trust.
BEING DIFFERENT = BEING WORTH TALKING ABOUT
Seth Godin calls it the Purple Cow principle—the idea that being remarkable (literally, worth remarking on) is the key to word-of-mouth.
(This is kind of hilarious to me because this in itself is basically a case study in being memorable. The idea that “consumers will notice something that’s different and interesting” isn’t all that different from the Von Restorff effect… but the “Purple Cow principle” sure is a lot catchier!)
Remember when Glossier opened their first showroom and it felt like the entire internet was talking about it? The idea that you could go somewhere irl and try beauty products was a whopping 0% new—Sephora, Macy’s, Ulta, etc etc had all existed for a long time.
But the babes walking around in millennial pink mechanics jumpsuits? The fancy sinks where you could wash your face and hands? The beyond-cool branding, the sculptural floral arrangements, the whole VIBE? THAT was new. Different. Interesting. Remark-able.
And if your copy isn’t helping you come across as interesting and literally remarkable, what the heck is it even doing for you then? Not its job, that’s for sure! Its power is in giving people something worth thinking about. Something worth remembering. Something worth mentioning to someone else.
Ultimately, standing out is a long game. But it’s so freaking worth it.
Memorability compounds over time. (So many of the best things do! SEO… sourdough…)
Every time you choose to say something in a way that actually reflects how you think, every time you dig a little deeper instead of skimming the surface, every time you resist the urge to copy-paste what's working for everyone else, you're building something to last.
The businesses that endure, that really build something meaningful, aren't the ones that blend in perfectly with everyone else. They're the ones that are willing to be a little bit different. To think a little bit harder. To trust that their right people would appreciate something more nuanced, more thoughtful, more real.
And this is really how I’ve come to see my job as a copywriter and your partner in this whole thing. I don’t call myself a “sales copywriter” or a “conversion copywriter” because that sounds like I’m just here to say the magic words that make people want to buy.
And to be clear, we do get there in the end! But it’s not magic.
It takes a whole thoughtful process where we both dig in and decide to say something that matters. Where we unearth all these little gems you may not even have realized were hiding within you, and hold them up into the light so that they’re unmissable. Where we piece your thoughts together and peel back alllll the layers of the onion to get to the heart of it all.
My commitment to you is that when you read your copy, you won’t just feel like, “Aw, I love that! I think people will wanna buy that!” It’s that you’ll see yourself, your ideas, your personality, and your expertise in all of their textured, thoughtful, nuanced, deeply human realness.
That’s really what I’m here to do for you. And in a world of what can feel like endless sameness, words that matter and say it differently make ALL the difference.
PS. If you’re feeling motivated to make your words more memorable, I am SO ready for you, and your next destination should be this super-thorough page all about the brand messaging + custom web copy process. Can’t wait to hear from you!