How to Build an Premium Product Brand With Distinction

As the creator of a premium product brand, you’ve likely poured a lot of time, effort, and money (read: heart and soul) into creating a quality product that’s worth the higher price. But you also might realise that a quality product alone isn’t enough to attract customers. It’s how they encounter and experience your brand that builds the desire and connection needed to buy. A brand that feels different from others in the market.

And yet, when you look around, it can feel like there is an abundance of brands in your industry all doing the same thing. Positioning themselves as premium, conscious, all with a similar look, similar product, and similar messaging. It’s easy to feel like everything has been done already.

The thing is, premium customers already know they want premium. What they’re deciding is which premium brand to choose. And when so many brands in your space share the same signals (a refined aesthetic, a conscious mission, considered ingredients), it's the brand that gives them something distinct to connect with that earns their attention, their loyalty, and their spend.

So how do you create a brand that has this quality and stands apart from others in your space?

Maybe you have some ideas, but feel unsure which of them would really work. Or you find yourself wracking your brain trying to think of any way to make your brand different, but none of them feel that exciting or meaningful.

When a brand lacks originality, the business can start to feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. Like you need to market louder, do more, create more products, and push harder to be seen. Yet even with all this effort, the sales often don’t come as you would like them to.

A strong brand is distinct at its core, so it doesn't need to work so hard on the outside to be noticed. The brand itself creates intrigue and offers people a reason to come beyond the product itself. And as people step into the brand world, a desire for the product begins to form, and this is where sales start to happen more organically.

What makes a premium brand feel distinct?

Let's take the example of the wellness industry. Today, there are many premium wellness brands using natural ingredients, sustainable practices, and a mission to help women feel beautiful in themselves. It's a familiar story now. The signals that used to make a brand in this space stand out now feel the same across the category. It's not that they don't add to a brand's value. It’s that on their own, they’re no longer enough to give a customer a clear reason to choose one premium brand over another.

So what does? The brand needs something about it that’s original. A world that extends beyond the product that people can engage with. Something that inspires them, and so they remember. People remember how the brand made them feel and what it invited them into.

A different way of thinking about distinction

Often founders think that to be distinct they have to invent something completely new. They don't. It can be as simple as taking something that already exists (a passion, a theme, a place, an ingredient) and making it central to the brand. I call this the Brand Lens. The core idea the entire brand is built around. Because distinct brands aren't different on the surface. They're intentional at the centre. The lens doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be loud. It just has to be something no one else in your space has made their own.

It's a bit like meeting someone new. What makes a person feel interesting isn't just what they do. It's what they're about. A passion, a perspective, a way of seeing the world. A Brand Lens works in the same way. It gives your brand something to be about, a point of interest beyond the product. Something a customer step into, explore, and find themselves drawn to.

Three premium brands with a strong Brand Lens

JOUISSANCE

Jouissance is a perfume brand built around the idea of literary passions, distilled into scent.

Vintage erotic literature becomes their lens. Their perfume scents are inspired by female artists, writers, and fictional characters. Their photography is sensual and nostalgic. Their content features reading rituals, the art of romantic living, and book recommendations.

You see, they didn’t come up with erotic literature. They were simply passionate about it and wove it through their brand.

And what does vintage erotic literature have to do with perfume? Well, not much, until they made it so. And that’s what makes them original. That’s what inspires people, makes them memorable, and creates desire for their perfumes, not just because of the scent notes, but because of the world behind them.

TATINE

The candle brand Tatine draws from music culture. On their Instagram, you’ll often see their candles placed alongside old vinyl covers or images of artists like Amy Winehouse or Bob Marley.

There isn’t an obvious connection between candles and music, but over time this reference point gives the brand a feeling, an atmosphere, something people can connect with.

WONDER VALLEY

Wonder Valley takes a different approach. Rather than using a cultural reference, they built their brand around one ingredient: olive oil.

They started with high-quality olive oil, then expanded into other products with it as the core ingredient. Shampoo, soap, body oil. They didn't expand by adding coconut oil, nuts, and biscuits. They stuck with olive oil. Olive oil products, olive oil recipes, a rich brand story about how they grow and produce it. This one simple focus is what made them feel distinct.

Why this approach is rare in practice

The reason most founders don't build with a Brand Lens is because they stay too close to what's already being done in their space. They study the other premium brands in the category, and let what they see there shape how they think about their own brand, rather than stepping outside of that completely and (excuse the cliche) thinking outside the box. And so they default to what feels safe. They say we use sustainable ingredients, hoping that's enough to stand apart. But true originality comes from connecting with your own depth, and turning what you find there into a clear creative idea no one else has claimed.

How to create your Brand Lens

When you look at these examples, the pattern is quite simple. Each brand has chosen something and stayed with it. A reference point, an interest, a theme, a perspective. Something that gives the brand life.

1. IDENTIFY YOUR BRAND LENS

This might be something you already know. Or it might take a bit of ideation to find it. What are you drawn to? What do you find interesting? What are you passionate about?

Cinema. Poetry. Astrology. Architecture. Travel. Spiritual rituals. Botanical science. Art Deco. Bossa Nova…

If it’s not immediately clear, you can start simply. Take a piece of paper and write down the things you are drawn to. Look through the list and ask:

• Could any of these become a lens for the brand?

• Could this shape how the brand feels, not just what it sells?

• How could this inspire your audience?

• What could be explored again and again?

You could choose a few, or keep it simple and just choose one as your main focus. In this way, originality doesn’t necessarily require creating something completely new, but comes from weaving something that already exists into your brand in a way no one else has.

2. EXPLORE IT MORE DEEPLY

Once you have an idea, spend some time with it.

• Why are you drawn to it?

• What does it represent?

• How does it feel?

• Why is it important?

• How does it add to people’s lives?

• What’s the story behind it?

This is about exploring the deeper and more meaningful layers behind your brand, and serves as rich material for your brand story and website copy.

3. LET IT SHAPE THE BRAND

Expressing your brand through this lens is an ongoing process, but to start, brainstorm all the ways it could show up in your brand. For example through graphic design, photography style, brand storytelling, product or collection names, and of course, marketing content.

Consider how you could inspire your audience through blogs, collaborations, interviews, social media. Over time, your Brand Lens becomes part of the brand’s character. Something people know you for.

To bring this together

A product itself may be valuable through its features, ingredients, materials, benefits, and craftsmanship. But what makes it distinct in the premium space is the brand that surrounds it. The depth, the character, and the lens it's all expressed through.

When that one unifying thread runs through everything, the brand starts to feel more whole, more recognisable, more irreplaceable. And in a space where so many brands are reaching for the same customer, it's the ones with a strong Brand Lens that customers choose. Because the brand gives them something intriguing to connect with, beyond the product itself.

The Brand Lens is the first of four building blocks of what I call the Brand Aura Effect. The natural pull a brand develops when people an intuitive sense of connection with its presence.

Kat Fletcher

Brand Consultant