AI Everywhere. Distinctiveness Nowhere
I spent the day at Olympia for London Tech Week yesterday, moving from one meeting to the next and chatting with people from across the industry. It’s a good event. Energetic and full of promise for the future. But after a few conversations, something became hard to ignore. The narratives all started to sound the same. AI-enabled. Disruptive. Efficient. If you’d covered up the logos, you’d struggle to tell one company from the next.
So I started asking people: “Is it just me, or does everyone kind of sound… identical?”
Most laughed. Then nodded. This isn’t a criticism of the many smart, creative people I met. It’s a symptom of something much bigger.
Are We Focusing on the Right Things?
Fresh data from Marketing Week highlights the trend perfectly:
- Just 12.9% of B2B marketers believe their company is investing enough in long-term brand building.
- Over 55% say short-term tactics have taken over.
- Fewer than half think their senior leadership even understand the need to balance short- and long-term thinking.
And while the next quarter looms, brand gets sidelined and seen as window dressing rather than a core driver of future value.
What Branding Really Means
As Walter Landor once said:
“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”
Your product is what you build. Your brand is what people believe about you. In technology, that belief creates real value because a strong brand:
- Builds memory so buyers remember you when it counts
- Builds confidence so decisions move faster
- Builds value so price becomes a factor, not a fight
Branding isn’t about logos, launch videos or generic claims of being faster, cheaper or smarter.
It’s about helping buyers feel sure of their decision before procurement gets involved.
That’s why the brand isn’t cosmetic. It’s commercial and strategic.
Why Clarity Wins
Here’s the truth. If your proposition is vague, no amount of funnel-building or content creation will help. To become the organisation that people want to talk to, you need:
- A clear perspective on your market
- A tightly defined offer that shows how you solve big problems
- The nerve to commit to a space and own it with a long-term view
- A message that’s easy to share and hard to forget
When these ingredients form a repeatable system, that’s when momentum builds. Not clever language. Not more noise. Just clarity, repeated with confidence.
This Isn’t Just a Marketing Issue
Brand isn’t the fluffy bit. It’s the foundation of future cash flow. In the rush to automate and hit short-term targets, many companies have sidelined the very thing that sets them apart. If your product isn’t vastly better or dramatically cheaper, your brand becomes the business. And if your marketing plan is just a spreadsheet of unrelated tactics, it’s not a strategy.
No Shortage of Talent. But a Shortage of Narrative
Many of the companies I spoke to at Tech Week had smart people and strong ideas.
But the story? Often unclear.
The benefits they offer? Vague.
The long-term plan? Not obvious.
And yet, the ones who have invested in their brand were easy to spot. They weren’t louder. They were more confident, more consistent and definitely more likely to be invited to speak again about what they believe in.
Our Take
Technology doesn’t make you memorable. The brand does.
And if you don’t shape it deliberately, the market will do it for you.
If you’re relying on automation to grow, make sure it’s amplifying something that’s actually worth hearing. No amount of emails or content scheduling will get you noticed. You can’t out-automate indifference.
Chris Hopwood
Founder, Tech Partnership