INSIGHT
The commercial risk of playing it safe
Why brand clarity is the most powerful marketing investment you can make in 2025
As we move through the year, we’ve noticed a curious shift across the marketing landscape.
With evolving generations and societal trends, the impact of the algorithm, the templated stores and spaces, and increasing AI-generated content, many brands appear to be losing their sense of self. Without a distinct point of view and with homogenised aesthetics that prioritise efficiency over authenticity, brand expressions are becoming dangerously indistinct.
We’re seeing it play out daily: Stores on the high street offer increasingly generic shopping experiences, campaigns blur into one another, brand launches and relaunches fail to make impact and online touchpoints feel templated rather than tailored. It’s happening all around us, and to even the most iconic of brands.
This ‘blandification’ is more than a creative concern—it’s a commercial risk. Because in the absence of a clear brand point of view, how will you cut through so the right customers are aware of your brand? How will a customer really feel they connect with your brand, and feel that you are truly for them? How and why will they remember you, want to spend time with you, be interested to talk to others about you, and think of you the next time they are in the market? Generic interactions don’t make a lasting impression.
At Caulder Moore, we see this as a moment not for dilution, but for bold definition. When 52% of consumers will not return to a store if they find its aesthetic unappealing (1), it’s vital to be speaking directly to your customer base. To embrace by being clear about what you stand for, you’ll connect more of the right people for you, strengthen your presence and your cut-through, and find the key to growth.
Now is the time for brands to sharpen—not soften—their identity. To articulate clearly who they are, what they stand for, and why that matters to the people they want to attract. To be distinctive – and different. To stop looking around at what others are doing, or hoping customers will tell them who they are, and make a stand. This is as true for legacy businesses evolving for the future, as it is for ambitious startups trying to stand out in a saturated digital marketplace.
(1) Fohlio, ‘The Psychology of Retail Store Interior Design’, via www.fohlio.com, 2024.
Jacquemus
A standout in the fashion sector, Jacquemus proves the power of playful, highly focused brand expression. Every collection, show, and campaign is unmistakably theirs, and proud of its roots —with its whimsical, personal, passion for French culture and universal gestures of beauty. It doesn’t try to be everything for everyone. That’s exactly why it resonates.
Jacquemus brand's 10th anniversary show in 2019 titled "Le Coup de Soleil
Ganni
Danish fashion brand Ganni pioneered and owns the ‘Ganni Girl’ phenomena which has driven their accelerated global growth. The Ganni Girl speaks to a cultural, community driven ethos, whilst being effortless and playful, a lifestyle that fosters a strong sense of belonging, and engagement beyond fashion. Their commitment to sustainability is central to this ethos and has resulted in compelling brand building, store experience initiatives.
Their Ganni Postmodern stores in Oslo and Copenhagen encourage customers to buy and sell preloved Ganni, whilst the Ganni Repeat store in Oslo offers repair services as well as the chance to buy preloved as well as new items from past collections.
Jaguar
Contrast that with Jaguar’s recent rebranding, which stepped into a new market space without the emotive or cultural equities that made the brand powerful. The result? A sleek yet forgettable identity that failed to connect with either legacy customers or new audiences.
Source: Jaguar Instagram, Electrifying.com via Guardian.co.uk
Why It Matters
Nielsen shows that strong brands command up to 30% more category value through price resilience and loyalty (2); 69% of consumers shop more with brands that offer consistent experiences in-store and online (3). 77% of consumers prefer to buy from companies who share their values and meaningful brands outperform the stock market by 134% (4)– so customers need to see those values and understand their meaning. The brands that win in 2025 will be those that stop chasing mass appeal and instead focus with precision on what they truly stand for.
(2) Nielsen IQ, ‘Building an Irresistible Brand during Economic Stagnation: A Strategic Imperative’, via https://nielseniq.com, 2024
(3) Forrester, ‘Customer Service Trends: How Operations become faster, cheaper and yet more human’ via www.forrester.com, 2018
(4) Havas Group, ‘Meaningful Difference’ Prosumer Report, 2025
At Caulder Moore, we have worked with many successful brands to create physical experiences that express and amplify the brand essence, from start-ups and emerging brands who have become household names. We created the first branded retail spaces for Jo Malone, which became the blueprint internationally. We worked closely with Chrissie Rucker in creating the first White Company and Little White Company stores.
Jo Malone first physical store designed by Caulder Moore
These two founders had a strong, clear sighted vision for their respective brands. They shared an appetite to do things differently, to realise their respective bold visions, without reference in either instance to their competitive set, real or perceived. They simply focussed on bringing their unique essence to life, and the rest is history…
Swiss Butter
More recently we have been working with Swiss Butter, an international hospitality business whose Founder Eddy Massad is very vocal about the importance of retaining a strong brand culture as they pursue global expansion in an ambitious and considered way. We partnered with Eddy and his team in opening their first European site in London, where consistent daily queues is testament to the power of creating a strong brand culture and experience.
“Brand clarity is what gives us the confidence to grow fast without losing ourselves. We obsess over the details, not to be perfect, but to be unmistakable. If people walk into any of our restaurants and immediately know it’s Swiss Butter, without a logo in sight, then we’ve done our job.”
Eddy and his team in opening their first European site in London, where consistent daily queues is testament to the power of creating a strong brand culture and experience.
If you don’t know what you stand for, you can’t show what you stand for.
But what if you’re not clear about your brand essence?
What if you’re not clear about your brand’s role in society today?
What if your competitive situation has changed, and your brand expression no longer resonates?
As your brand evolves, how do you know what to leave behind, and what to keep?
This is the real world, human dimension, that is so important to physical spaces.
Sometimes, the brands we partner with, either emerging brands with ambitions to grow, or heritage brands seeking to revitalise and attract a new customer fanbase whilst retaining their loyal customers, don’t have a clear brand vision.
This is where the team at Caulder Moore can help.
A collaborative London-based creative powerhouse, we are redefining design excellence for brands in retail and hospitality. Outside the sea of sameness, creating brand expressions and spaces that make your brand impossible to ignore.
We work with both heritage brands and ambitious challengers to uncover and articulate their brand essence. Led by our Brand Strategist Sylvie Spark, we help businesses define their role in society today, to be clear about what they are and who they are for. By clarifying your internal and external voice, your point of view and vision of what you want to achieve, we ensure that every touchpoint — from store environment and experience to online — builds consistently and memorably, helping everyone in your organisation deliver true to who you are, so you can focus time and money on strengthening (not confusing) your brand.
The increasing sea of sameness that dominates our media landscape and high streets creates a huge opportunity for brands to create stand out. The more AI crowdsources identity and weeds out the differentials, the more the human, emotive and unique will be valued and appreciated.
By working in partnership with our clients, we share a collective vision in being clear about how their physical experience, whether store, bar, café or restaurant is going to create clear stand out, and how it is going to fuel their fanbase.
Because in today’s environment, confidence is magnetic. And clarity is your competitive edge.
First Swiss Butter site in Europe - London