You’ve seen it happen. A company pops up out of nowhere, captures the entire cultural zeitgeist for three months, and then vanishes into a puff of venture capital smoke. Most people call that success. They’re wrong.
Actually, they're more than wrong—they're chasing a ghost.
🔗 Read more: Retail Store Checkout Counter Layouts: What Most People Get Wrong
In the high-stakes world of modern commerce, everyone is obsessed with the concept of Building A Notable Brand (BANB). But here’s the thing: most founders and marketing directors treat BANB like a checklist. They think if they get the hex codes right, hire a snappy copywriter, and buy enough Meta ads, they’ve "built" something. It doesn't work that way. A brand isn't what you tell people it is; it’s the gut feeling they have when they hear your name.
The BANB Reality Check
Honestly, the word "brand" has been beaten to death. It’s been pulverized. When we talk about Building A Notable Brand, we aren't talking about logos. Paul Rand, the legendary graphic designer who did the IBM and UPS logos, famously said that a design is "silent unless it is infused with meaning."
The meaning is the hard part.
Look at Patagonia. You can't just "copy" their strategy. They spent decades being genuinely annoyed at environmental degradation before it was cool to care. Their BANB strategy wasn't a strategy at all—it was a series of expensive, often inconvenient choices. That’s why people trust them. You can't fake that kind of historical weight.
Why Most BANB Efforts Fail Immediately
Most people fail because they prioritize "reach" over "resonance." They want millions of eyes. They should want a thousand hearts.
If you're trying to achieve BANB status, you have to realize that the internet is currently a hall of mirrors. Everything looks like everything else. Have you noticed how every "direct-to-consumer" startup uses the same pastel colors and serif fonts? It’s called "blanding." It’s the opposite of being notable.
To be notable, you have to be willing to be disliked by the wrong people.
✨ Don't miss: Costco Executive Member Benefits Changes: What Most People Get Wrong
The Polarizing Truth
If everyone likes you, you’re boring. Boring is death.
Take Liquid Death, the canned water company. They’re basically selling water—one of the most commoditized substances on Earth. But they built a notable brand by leaning into heavy metal aesthetics and "murdering your thirst." It’s aggressive. It’s weird. Some people hate it. Those people aren't their customers. By alienating the "safe" crowd, they captured a massive, loyal following that would never buy a bottle of Dasani.
The Architecture of True Notability
How do you actually do this without losing your mind or your budget?
First, you need a "Point of View" (POV). Most companies have a mission statement. Mission statements are usually corporate word salad. A POV is a stance on how the world should be.
- Nike’s POV: Everyone is an athlete.
- Apple’s POV (historically): Tools should be intuitive and beautiful, not just functional.
- Tesla’s POV: Sustainable energy doesn't have to suck.
Tactical BANB: The Three Pillars
- Consistency over Intensity: It’s better to be 7/10 interesting every day than 10/10 interesting once a year.
- The "Under-the-Hood" Factor: Show the mess. People in 2026 are allergic to "perfect" marketing. They want to see the warehouse, the failures, and the raw process.
- Community Sovereignty: Stop treating your followers like data points. Start treating them like a guild.
The Neuroscience of Being Notable
There’s actual science behind why some things stick in our brains while others slide off like Teflon. It’s called the Von Restorff effect. Basically, in any given environment, the item that differs from the rest is the one most likely to be remembered.
If you’re Building A Notable Brand, you are fighting against the brain's natural tendency to filter out the mundane. If you look like your competitors, your potential customer's brain literally deletes you to save energy.
You have to be the "red apple" in a bin of green ones.
The Role of Storytelling (The Non-Cringe Kind)
Please, stop saying you’re "telling a story" if all you’re doing is listing features. A story requires a protagonist, a conflict, and a resolution.
In the BANB framework, your customer is the protagonist. Your product is the tool they use to overcome a conflict (a problem in their life). The resolution is the "Better Version of Themselves" that exists after using your product.
Think about Airbnb. They don't sell "spare rooms." They sell the idea that you can "belong anywhere." The conflict is the sterile, lonely experience of a hotel. The resolution is the feeling of being a local. That is how you build a notable brand that survives a recession.
💡 You might also like: Employee lounge lcg 360: Why your breakroom is actually a productivity killer
Where Everyone Gets It Wrong
The biggest mistake? Thinking that BANB ends.
You don't "finish" building a brand. It’s a living organism. It requires constant pruning. Sometimes, you have to kill off parts of your brand that worked five years ago because they no longer fit the current world.
Netflix used to be about red envelopes and DVDs. If they had stayed "The DVD Company," they’d be a footnote in business history next to Blockbuster. They pivoted their entire brand identity to "The Content Engine." It was risky. It worked.
Actionable Steps for Your BANB Journey
Stop planning and start testing. The market is the only real judge of what is notable.
- Audit your current touchpoints. Look at your automated emails, your "About Us" page, and your packaging. If you removed your logo, would anyone know it’s you? If the answer is no, you have work to do.
- Find your "Enemy." What does your brand stand against? Inefficiency? Elitism? Boring design? Define it clearly.
- Narrow your focus. You can’t be notable to everyone. Pick a specific sub-culture and serve them so well that they become your marketing department.
- Invest in "Unscalable" Acts. Send a handwritten note. Answer a customer's weird question with a video. These are the things that create "notability" in a world of AI-driven automation.
Building a brand is about the accumulation of small, intentional choices that prove you are who you say you are. It’s about being human in a world that’s becoming increasingly digital and cold. If you can manage that, you won't just have a company; you'll have a legacy.
Start by identifying the one thing your industry does that drives you crazy. Then, build your brand around the exact opposite of that thing. That’s your first step toward true notability.