There’s a scene in Mad Men where Don Draper convinces a room full of executives that a carousel of family photographs isn’t just a projector—it’s a time machine. The pitch works because he understood something fundamental: people don’t buy products; they buy an answer or a lifestyle.

They buy what those products represent.

Fast-forward to today’s eCommerce landscape. It seems we’ve forgotten this lesson. Browse Amazon or DTC brands, and you’ll see an ocean of sameness. Same aesthetic and value propositions.

Danni Bramall has been in those meetings for 15 years. As Head of Brand at Pretty You London – and previously at Boohoo Man, Public Desire, and agency-side with John Lewis – she’s learned when to fight for brand and when to swallow the data.

This misconception sets the stage for a deeper issue underpinning the current eCommerce approach.

The performance marketing trap

The conversation on Browse Basket Buy began with an uncomfortable truth: most eCommerce brands have become extraordinarily good at acquiring customers and remarkably poor at keeping them.

Performance marketing became king for one reason. It offered measurable, attributable results. You could track every pound spent, every click, every conversion. Finance teams loved this. Investors demanded it. Gradually, the industry focused only on short-term acquisition at the expense of long-term brand equity.

The problem? You can’t build sustainable differentiation solely through Facebook ads. When your entire marketing strategy depends on paid media efficiency, you’re fundamentally competing on who can afford to lose the most money for the longest. It’s a race to commoditization disguised as a growth strategy.

Key takeaway: Sustainable differentiation comes from branding, not just paid advertising.

Danni’s insight cuts through this: “Brand isn’t what happens after you’ve achieved scale. Brand is what gives you permission to scale in the first place.”

What brand actually means in eCommerce

The word “brand” is thrown around with such frequency that it has lost all meaning. In Danni’s mind, though, branding isn’t about logos, colour palettes, or the tone of voice document gathering dust in your shared drive.

Brand is the answer to three questions:

1. Who are you for?
2. What problem do you solve that nobody else solves quite this way?
3. Why should anyone believe you?

Most eCommerce businesses can’t answer these with specificity. They’ll tell you they’re “for everyone who values quality” or that they “solve the problem of finding premium products at accessible prices.” These aren’t answers. They’re corporate word salad designed to offend nobody while connecting with nobody.

Key takeaway: Specificity is crucial to establishing a genuine brand identity.

Danni shared examples from her business. Start by understanding a specific person, e.g. busy professionals who need practical solutions for their real lives. Not just aspirational, Instagram-inspired versions of their lives.

This reversal matters enormously. When you start with a deep understanding of your customers, your brand becomes more defensible. Competitors can copy your product features, undercut your pricing, and mimic your aesthetic. They can’t replicate the relationship you’ve built with people who see themselves in your story.

Key takeaway: Customer understanding is the foundation of brand strength.

The death of distinctiveness

One of the most fascinating threads in the conversation centred on why so many eCommerce brands look identical. Danni unpacked several contributing factors, but the core issue is simple: everyone’s copying everyone else’s homework.

There is an entire ecosystem set on reverse-engineering DTC brand success. Agencies analyse their Facebook ads. Consultants break down their funnels. Entrepreneurs imitate their visual identities. The result: category after category where true differentiation disappears.

Danni referenced Byron Sharp’s concept of “distinctive brand assets”—the colours, shapes, sounds, and cues that make a brand instantly recognisable. Think of Coca-Cola red or the McDonald’s golden arches. In eCommerce, we’ve convinced ourselves these assets don’t matter because we’re “digital-first” or “data-driven.”

It’s nonsense. Human psychology hasn’t changed because we moved shopping from high streets to smartphones. If anything, the digital environment makes distinctiveness more valuable, not less. When customers encounter hundreds of brands daily through feeds and searches, the ones that register immediately are the ones that survive.

Key takeaway: Distinctiveness is essential for survival in digital commerce.

But building distinctive assets takes commitment. You can’t A/B test your way to memorability, nor can you constantly pivot your entire visual identity.

Distinctiveness demands consistency over time—exactly what venture-backed growth models often discourage.

PR as brand strategy, not afterthought

Danni works with eCommerce brands that typically view PR as something you do once you’ve “made it”—a trophy for success rather than a tool for building it. She’s adamant this is backwards.

Good PR isn’t about vanity coverage in national newspapers. It’s about creating genuine conversation around what makes your business matter. It’s earned attention from the right people, not bought impressions from anyone with a credit card.

The distinction is crucial. Paid advertising interrupts people who are doing something else. PR earns attention from people actively seeking information, entertainment, or solutions. The mental availability you build through earned media compounds in ways that performance marketing never can.

Key takeaway: PR creates lasting audience engagement that paid ads cannot.

Danni shared examples of brands using smart PR to outperform their size. They don’t chase every publication or make desperate news hooks. Instead, they find authentic stories—founder journeys, product challenges, customer impact—and seek journalists who care about these narratives.

This requires patience, which is why most eCommerce brands won’t do it. But the ones that do build competitive advantages that can’t be bought on a media plan.

Making branding a practical tip

What should an eCommerce brand with limited resources actually do about branding?

Danni’s answer was refreshingly unromantic. Start by being honest about who you’re not for. Most brands fear narrowing their audience because it feels like leaving money on the table. But trying to appeal to everyone guarantees you’ll resonate with nobody.

Key takeaway: Focus your brand on a specific audience by excluding others.

Pick a specific customer. Not a broad demographic, but a real person with actual problems and preferences. Build everything to solve their problems as they live. This is not market research—it’s about observing real people in their natural environment.

Then, commit to consistency. Select distinctive visual and verbal elements and incorporate them consistently throughout. Avoid trends and frequent pivots. Brand building needs repetition until your recognition is automatic.

Finally, measure what matters. Don’t just track acquisition costs and conversion rates. Focus on metrics like unprompted awareness, consideration rates, and recommendation likelihood. These are harder to track and move slowly. However, they demonstrate that your business can thrive even when marketing costs skyrocket.

The long game

Perhaps the most valuable insight from Danni came near the end: successful eCommerce brands eventually realise they’re not really in the eCommerce business. They’re in the relationship business that happens to transact online.

Key takeaway: Long-term success comes from fostering relationships, not just sales.

This changes everything. You stop optimising for transactions and start building trust. Instead of growth hacking, you form genuine connections. You create something people want to be part of.

It’s slower. It’s harder to model in a spreadsheet. It won’t make you look like a genius in next quarter’s board meeting.

It’s the only sustainable path forward in a category where product advantages can vanish overnight, and customer acquisition costs continue to rise.

If you’re ready to build a brand that endures, take action now: clarify your core audience, invest in brand distinctiveness, and commit to consistent relationship-building. The eCommerce brands that do this won’t just survive—they’ll be the ones still standing when everyone else’s performance marketing finally stops performing.

This article was written with the assistance of AI.