Whilst technology is fast eroding the ability to make products and services that stand apart, marketers must look deeper to make connections with customers and consumers, says Ashgrove’s Terry van Rhyn.

As we move deeper into an era shaped by algorithms, automation and infinite choice, one of the most profound shifts in branding is unfolding quietly but decisively. Differentiation – the cornerstone of marketing for decades – is becoming harder to achieve, easier to imitate and increasingly fragile. At the same time, something far more powerful is rising in its place: meaning.

For much of the past half-century, brands competed on features, performance and positioning. Marketers were taught to identify points of difference and defend them relentlessly. If your product was quicker, faster, cheaper or more advanced than the competition, you had a reason to exist.

Today, that logic feels increasingly outdated. Technology has flattened the competitive landscape. Innovation cycles are shorter, copycats are quicker and AI has accelerated the pace at which ideas can be generated and replicated. What once took years to build can now be matched in months. In this environment, differentiation has become temporary.

Look across almost any industry and the pattern is strikingly similar. Automotive brands speak the same language of electrification and sustainability. Financial institutions promise speed, transparency and personalisation. Fashion brands champion individuality and ethics. Lifestyle and spirits brands emphasise craft, provenance and storytelling. The aesthetics may differ, but the narratives converge.

Consumers are surrounded by brands that look different but sound remarkably alike. This is not because marketers have become less creative. It is because the traditional frameworks of differentiation have been commoditised. When everyone has access to similar data, similar technology and similar insights, brands inevitably begin to resemble one another.

Yet this is not leading to consumer indifference. Instead, it is driving a deeper shift in how people choose brands. When functional differences blur, emotional meaning becomes decisive.

People no longer ask only what a brand does better. They ask what it stands for, what it represents and how it fits into their sense of identity. In a world where products are increasingly comparable, meaning becomes the true differentiator.

Interestingly, this is not a new idea. When I was part of Y&R in the mid-1990s, I was introduced to the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), one of the most rigorous frameworks ever developed to understand how brands grow. What struck me then – and still does today – was how clearly it demonstrated that strong brands are not built on differentiation alone, but on a balance of distinctiveness, relevance, esteem and knowledge.

In essence, BAV revealed something marketers often overlooked: brands succeed not simply because they are different, but because they are meaningful. That insight feels even more relevant today.

As AI and data-driven marketing become more sophisticated, technical differentiation becomes increasingly automated. Algorithms can optimise performance, refine targeting and personalise experiences with extraordinary precision. But they cannot, on their own, create meaning. This is because meaning is a human construct.

It emerges from culture, emotion and shared experience. It is shaped by stories, symbols and values. It cannot be engineered purely through data, however advanced that data may be. This is why the most successful brands of the coming decade will not be those that simply out-tech their competitors. They will be those that out-interpret them.

They will move beyond asking how their product is unique and start asking why their brand matters. They will understand that differentiation is no longer just about being different; it is about being relevant in a deeper, more resonant way.

For marketers, this has profound implications. If differentiation is becoming fragile, meaning must become strategic. It cannot be superficial or improvised. Purpose statements and brand stories must be lived, not merely communicated. Consumers are remarkably adept at sensing when meaning is manufactured rather than authentic.

The brands that thrive will be those that recognise that competitive advantage now lies in emotional relevance, not just functional superiority. Differentiation has not disappeared; it has evolved. It has moved from products to perceptions, from features to feelings, from performance to purpose.

In a world where everything can be copied, meaning cannot.

As we look ahead, the brands that stand out will not be those that chase difference for its own sake, but those that articulate a clear and compelling sense of why they exist. In an age of infinite choice, consumers are not searching only for better products. They are searching for brands that reflect who they are, what they believe and where they belong.

In that sense, the death of differentiation is not something to fear. It is an invitation. An invitation to move beyond the mechanics of marketing and rediscover its deeper role: not just to sell products, but to create meaning in a world that increasingly demands it.