Scroll LinkedIn for five minutes and you'll find someone telling you the "one thing every brand must do" to succeed. The problem? A lot of it sounds great in theory but falls apart in the real world.

These are the bits of branding advice we hear all the time that we just don't buy into. Some are half-truths, some are badly misunderstood, and some highlight exactly where people go wrong with brand design.

Before anyone starts on us... none of these are completely wrong. Most of them started as good advice. The problem is they've been repeated so many times that they've become oversimplified. Branding is all about understanding when the rules actually apply.

1. "Our Product Is Great, We Don't Need Branding"

We surprisingly hear this one a lot. And yes, having a great product is obviously important... we'd never argue with that. But if it looks like every other product on the shelf, who's actually picking it up? We live in a world that's obsessed with aesthetics. Whether we like it or not, people judge things in seconds. The sexier-looking product is usually getting swiped off the shelf long before the generic one gets a chance. It's not always because the product’s even necessarily better. It's because it caught someone's eye first.

Take Rhode, for example (shoutout to Hailey Bieber, she clearly knows what she's doing). Is a phone case that holds your lip treatment revolutionary? Not really. But the branding around it absolutely is. It isn't just selling a phone case or a lip balm. It's selling convenience for the girls who are forever rummaging around in their bags trying to find lip gloss on a night out. It's a simple idea, but it's wrapped up in a lifestyle people actually want to buy into.

Then there's the packaging design, and honestly... chef's kiss. Everything feels considered and that level of polish usually comes from testing and prototyping packaging before committing to production.

The colours match the products perfectly, the materials feel premium, it's clean, aesthetic and ridiculously photogenic. People actually want to film themselves opening it. That unboxing moment becomes content, that content becomes free marketing, and suddenly thousands of people are seeing the brand without Rhode spending a penny on another advert. That's not an accident. That's what happens when you invest in the entire brand experience, not just the product. From the packaging to the product to the social content, every touchpoint feels like it's part of the same story.

It's also selling a lifestyle. Nobody's buying it just because they desperately need somewhere to store their lip treatment. They're buying into a feeling. It says, I'm organised, I'm on trend, I know what's cool. We're glued to our phones all day anyway, so combining the two is one of those ideas where you think, "Why didn't anyone do this sooner?"

Then the snowball starts rolling. You spot someone with one in a TikTok, your mate gets one, your favourite influencer has one clipped to their phone, and suddenly it feels like everyone's got one. That's the magic of great branding. It creates a sense of I want one too before you've even stopped to ask yourself whether you actually need it. That's something branding can do that a great product on its own simply can't.

You want proof, well here it is …

Hailey Bieber shared with Wall Street Journal that over 700,000 phone cases have sold at $38 each, generating nearly $30 million. “We put something in people’s hands that they didn’t know that they needed or wanted,” Bieber said.

So our point is, saying "our product is great, we don't need branding" misses the point entirely. Branding isn't there to cover up a bad product. It's there to get people interested enough to experience a good one. Your product could genuinely be ten times better than the competition, but if nobody notices it because it looks forgettable, the hidden cost of poor brand design is the attention, trust and sales you never get the chance to earn. If you've created something brilliant, give it the branding it deserves from day one rather than waiting until the business has already outgrown its foundations. Otherwise you're relying on people to discover it by accident and that's a pretty weak brand strategy to have.

💥 Hot Take: The best product doesn't always win. The best-branded one usually does.

2. "My Work Speaks for Itself"

We'd all love to believe that quality naturally rises to the top. It should but the world doesn’t work that way. Unfortunately, that's rarely how people make decisions.

People don't have time to analyse every option. They make quick judgements based on what they see and what feels trustworthy. If your work really is brilliant, don't make people work harder to discover it. Good branding simply gives your work the stage it deserves instead of hoping someone eventually notices.

💥 Hot Take: Your work can't speak for itself if nobody notices it exists.

3. "Try to Appeal to Everyone"

Trying to be for everyone is usually the fastest way to become memorable to absolutely no one.

The brands people genuinely love tend to have a point of view. They know who they're talking to, what they stand for and who probably isn't going to be interested. That's completely fine. Not every customer is your customer. In fact, the more comfortable you are with that, the stronger your brand usually becomes.

💥 Hot take: If everyone likes your brand, nobody necessarily loves it.

4. "People Buy Your Why"

Simon Sinek definitely started an important conversation, but somewhere along the way people became obsessed with talking about themselves instead of their customers.

Most customers aren't lying awake wondering why your business exists. Put it this way: if you need to fill up and put petrol in your car, do you sit there thinking hmmm … I wonder what their why is? No, of course you don’t – you fill it up and go about your day as normal.

What they are wondering, though, is whether you can solve their problem. Your purpose matters, but only when it helps people understand what's in it for them. Your "why" should support your customer story, not replace it.

💥 Hot take: Customers care more about their problems than your purpose.

5. "Just Be Authentic"

This one gets thrown around so much that it's almost meaningless now.

Being authentic doesn't mean posting every personal struggle, sharing your life story or treating LinkedIn like group therapy. It simply means your brand feels genuine and consistent to who you are.

Customers don't need every detail of your life. They need confidence that you're who you say you are. Authenticity works best when it's intentional rather than completely unfiltered.

💥 Hot take: Your customers want honesty, not your diary.

6. "Be Different"

We spend a lot of time encouraging brands to challenge and rebel against category conventions. But being different just for the sake of it? That's usually a mistake.

The best brands don't force uniqueness. They naturally emphasise what genuinely makes them better, more interesting or more useful, using those qualities to differentiate their brand design rather than forcing superficial uniqueness. If you're making strange design choices simply because nobody else is doing them, you're probably focusing on the wrong thing. Different only works when it actually improves the experience.

💥 Hot take: Being weird for attention isn't branding.

7. "Your Logo Is Your Brand"

Your logo is important yes but no it isn't your brand.

Your logo is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. Your tone of voice, customer experience, packaging, website, service, reputation and product/service can all become distinctive brand assets that shape how people recognise and remember you. You can spend months perfecting a logo, but if every interaction after that disappoints people, the logo isn't going to rescue you.

💥 Hot take: A new logo won't fix a bad customer experience.

8. "You Control Your Brand"

You influence your brand. BUT ultimately, your customers decide what it actually becomes.

You can carefully craft your positioning, messaging and visual identity, but every interaction either reinforces or damages that promise. Charge premium prices for coffee that arrives cold? People won't remember your lovely branding, no matter how well it reflects current food and drink design trends.

Sell an affordable, nicely packaged fake tan with a dispenser pump that barely works? Same again, frustration then becomes part of the brand too. Let’s just say, they’re not going to be running back to try it again. Or even think about the endless conversations we’ve all heard about how ridiculous Amazon packaging is. You could literally order a single pair of socks and a huge parcel will arrive at the door due to the unnecessary packaging.

Branding isn't about creating an image people believe. It's about creating expectations your business consistently delivers on. The strongest brands are the ones where the experience and the branding tell exactly the same story.

💥 Hot take: Your customers have the final say on your brand.

9. "You Need to Rebrand to Grow"

Not every business problem needs a shiny new logo and an entire new set of assets.

Sometimes sales are dropping because the product needs improving. Sometimes customer service is letting you down. Sometimes your marketing simply isn't reaching enough people. Or maybe your packaging design just needs a little bit of a change. A rebrand can absolutely unlock growth, but it isn't a magic fix for every problem. That’s why plenty of times, we’ve told clients not to rebrand. Sounds wild that considering we’re a brand and packaging design agency but we will never move clients in the wrong direction.

We can diagnose what the real issue is and work with that. Changing how you look won't solve problems that have nothing to do with branding.

💥 Hot take: Don't rebrand what isn't actually broken.

10. "Premium Branding Means Looking Minimal"

Somewhere along the way, people decided that white space, beige colours and a thin sans-serif font automatically equal luxury.

Premium isn't a style, it’s usually a feeling. It comes from confidence, consistency and attention to detail. Some luxury brands are loud, colourful and full of personality. Others are stripped back. You don’t need to copy a certain aesthetic. Instead, how about you create something that feels valuable to the people you're trying to attract.

💥 Hot take: Minimal doesn't automatically mean premium.

11. "Consistency Means Never Changing"

Consistency doesn't mean freezing your brand in time forever.

The best brands evolve constantly. They refine, improve and adapt using meaningful customer feedback rather than changing things on instinct alone. Customers expect businesses to grow and sometimes that growth means the original identity, messaging or structure no longer reflects what the company has become.

Packaging changes as materials, technology, customer expectations and visual conventions evolve over time. Messaging develops. Messaging develops. Design trends move on. The trick is evolving without abandoning everything that made people trust you in the first place.

💥 Hot take: Consistency isn't about staying the same forever.

12. "Branding Is Just Making Things Look Nice"

This one hurts us a little. If branding was just picking colours and making a logo look pretty, Canva would have replaced every branding agency by now.

Design absolutely matters, but good branding starts long before anyone opens Illustrator. It's positioning. Strategy. Understanding customers. Knowing why someone should choose you instead of the twenty other options sitting next to you. The visuals are simply how that brand strategy comes to life.

💥Hot Take: If branding was just making things look pretty, then everyone must be a branding expert, right? 👀

13. “Good Branding Is Expensive"

Expensive branding isn't always good branding, and good branding doesn't always have to cost a fortune.

We'd rather see a small business with a clear message, consistent packaging and a recognisable personality than a £100k rebrand with no real brand strategy behind it.

Great branding isn't reserved for businesses with deep pockets. It comes from knowing who you are, who you're talking to and making every touchpoint feel consistent. Spend what you can afford, but spend it wisely.

💥 Hot Take: Expensive branding can still be bad branding. Find the right agency first, looking beyond the portfolio to its strategy, process, communication and commercial understanding.

So... should you ignore branding advice?

Not quite.

The problem isn't that branding advice like this is inherently wrong. It's that people treat it like universal truth when branding almost never works like that.

Great branding is about context. What works well for one business might completely flop for another. That's why blindly following every podcast clip or viral carousel is a dangerous game.

Our advice? Learn the rules. Question them. Break them when it makes sense.

And if you're ever unsure whether your brand needs a rebrand, new packaging design or simply a better brand strategy, that's exactly the sort of conversation we love having here at Noramble.

Get in touch.