In commodity markets, everything appears interchangeable: a tonne of steel is a tonne of steel, a litre of fuel is a litre of fuel. When buyers cannot easily see technical differences, they default to price, pushing producers into a race to the bottom. Yet even in these settings, firms successfully build brands that command a premium by shaping how customers perceive reliability, service, origin, or risk, rather than the underlying chemistry of the product. The product may be functionally equivalent, but the story, guarantees, and context around it are not.

Escaping the commodity trap means differentiating in the details around the core good: packaging, delivery reliability, financing, bundled services, sustainability claims, or specialised use cases. These elements convert a generic input into a specific promise: “this supplier will not delay your project”, “this brand stands behind failures”, “this option aligns with your values”. In practice, branding in commodities is less about logos and more about operational consistency socialised through narrative. The firm competes not only on what it sells, but on what customers believe will happen after they buy.

Links: Meaning drives innovation beyond tech and business models, Recommendations matter more than marketing spend