No one else can copy this.

Back in my ad agency days, we were in an internal meeting ahead of a big pitch. The work felt finished. Polished. Confident. The client service director looked at it and said, “It’s missing…you know…that…thing.”

The room sighed. Vague feedback. Easy to dismiss. We ignored it.

Years later, I realized what was missing.

The work was missing the thing only that brand could do. It looked good. Solid execution. Even won a few awards. But it could have belonged to anyone. Nothing in it drew a line.

Most brands keep adding, hoping distinctiveness shows up.

It doesn’t.

The thing only you can do comes from removal. From habits. From decisions that get repeated even when they’re uncomfortable.

Here’s how it’s built.

↳ Decide the one thing your brand exists to do. Not a positioning line. A constraint. Something specific enough that it immediately makes parts of your current work feel unnecessary. If it doesn’t force trade-offs, it’s not real.

↳ Turn it into a filter for decisions. Every piece of work runs through it. Not in a meeting. In practice. What gets approved. What gets delayed. This is where most brands slip. They agree in theory and compromise in execution.

↳ Repeat the removal. Simplicity doesn’t stick on its own. Extra creeps back in. New ideas. New edge cases. New exceptions. Strong brands schedule time to cut what no longer serves the one thing. Over and over.

This is where separation happens.

Most brands decide and move on. Strong brands decide, then keep making the same call. That discipline is the part no competitor can copy.

— Ian Adams, Founder the little red sofa

Before founding the little red sofa, I led strategy and creative for brands like Jeep, HSBC, and Unilever at top global agencies and in-house teams across 8 countries. Now I partner with brands to do the uncomfortable work that builds resilience. That’s how they become unshakable. Impossible to ignore.