Is Your Brand Weird Enough?
It might sound weird to ask such a weird question.
But I’ve been thinking about what makes a brand sell. Not $200K or $500K a year, but millions of dollars.
And somehow, the answer always seems to come back to weirdness.
I’m talking about having something unique or different about your product, your brand, or the way you do business. Otherwise, chances are you’ll blend in with everyone else.
So how do you make yourself weird?
Here are a few examples I’ve been thinking about in case your business needs a little more weirdness.
01. By changing something about your product
Some brands make themselves different by creating a product that nobody expects.
The other day, I saw a video about a guy who created a flavored toothpick company called Pick’Em.
A toothpick! One of the most boring products ever. And yet he took that boring product and added flavors like mint, mango, and strawberry.
That’s it. Adding weirdness to a toothpick made him millions.
02. By designing a unique brand identity or packaging
Other brands make themselves different through branding and packaging. The example that comes to mind is Graza.
They sell olive oil, but unlike other brands that come in a dark glass bottle with elegant labels and premium packaging, Graza went in the complete opposite direction. Their packaging looks like something designed for a seven-year-old: bright green colors, doodles, and plastic squeeze bottles.
In extra virgin olive oil terms, they’re the weird kid that eats their boogers during recess.
But they’re also the brand everyone remembers. And that weirdness has made them millions.
03. By talking differently than everyone else
Some brands become different through the way they communicate. In my opinion, Wendy’s has mastered this.
They turned their social media into a comedy show: They roast competitors, make fun of trends, and jump into random conversations nobody asked them to join.
For a fast-food restaurant, that’s pretty weird, and it makes them worth following and paying attention to.
I can think of other examples:
T-Mobile chose a bright magenta color when everyone else was using safe tech colors.
Bloom built an entire brand around prebiotic drinks that extended into a whole line of health supplements.
And what about Michael Jackson? He has a category of his own.
After watching his biopic last week and having Instagram’s algorithm bombard me with videos about him, somewhere between the moonwalking and the conspiracy theories, I started thinking about how weird he was.
He had his rituals, his obsessions, his traumas, and all sorts of behaviors that made him a world apart from everyone else. This, and his talent, made him unforgettable.
Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny may be today’s pop royalty, but decades later, Michael Jackson is still the King of Pop. He was too weird to be replaced.
The Age of AI
Twenty years ago, being weird wasn’t exactly celebrated. In many ways, it still isn’t.
But if you’re building a business today, in an age of AI-generated plagiarism and sameness, chances are you’re better off being different. Being memorable. Being a little weird.
Because weird connects and sells.
If your brand is starting to feel like everything else out there, it might be time to rethink how it shows up. We help brands build identities that are not just well-designed, but genuinely distinctive.
