What are Your Category Cues? Sometimes Standing Out Starts with Fitting In

Imagine you’re in the frozen food aisle, watching a consumer browse for ice cream.

The shopper spots a new artisanal pint. Beautiful container—matte paper where others use glossy coating, text-only design where competitors show indulgent swirls. He drifts past, then goes back. Pulls one out. Reads the compelling origin story. Puts it back. Then confidently grabs something else, a brand that just looks more like... ice cream.

As a strategist who spends her days making brands irresistible, I know exactly what happened here. The new brand was so busy trying to set itself apart, it forgot to signal it belongs in its own comparison set.

It’s a tension my CMO clients and I wrestle with every day: How do you create an indulgence brand that’s familiar enough to be trusted but distinctive enough to be memorable?

Whether you're a startup with limited runway or an established brand entering new territory, it can literally be the million-dollar question.

What are Category Cues?

Category cues are those distinct visual and verbal signals derived from semiotics that instantly tell shoppers what something is:

• Heavy bottle = premium spirit
• Visible cacao percentage = serious chocolate
• Window packaging = fresh snack

They're important shorthands our brains love to use to navigate endless choices.

Most marketers are well aware how influential category cues are. But let’s be honest: Sometimes it’s just too tempting to set them aside when standing out is priority one. After all, if you look like everyone else, how will anyone notice you?

But here's what behavioral science tells us: Even when we think we’re open to trying something new, our brains are surprisingly cautious.

When Different Gets Dangerous

Standing out like that new ice cream—with packaging that absolutely grabs attention at shelf—matters. But at the actual moment of choice, it’s well-proven that human beings gravitate toward what feels safe.

Behavioral science calls this the “familiarity principle.” We trust what we’ve encountered before, even when unfamiliar options might be objectively better. (It’s why your foodie CEO who knows every hot spot defaults to the steakhouse when a deal is on the line.)

This is a huge part of why it’s so difficult to launch a new brand or find a new category entry point. Especially if your product qualifies as an indulgence.

Unlike functional purchases, indulgence brands require permission; we need to justify splurging on a moment of joy. Familiar category cues lighten that cognitive load—making your brand feel like a "right" choice before logic even kicks in.

This translates directly to spend. For brands that need results this quarter, not next year, minimizing any and all cognitive friction at shelf is critical.

I know what you're thinking: But every brief calls for disruption! Every ambitious founder or CMO wants to grow faster by breaking conventions.

The problem is, this well-intentioned push to differentiate can easily backfire. Solid data already suggests that sometimes, instead of breaking through to consumers, we’re confusing them.

Consider this recent advertising research from Effie and System1:

• 45% of viewers can't identify what brand an ad is for after just 5 seconds of viewing
• Even after watching an entire ad, 2 in 10 people globally still have no idea whose product they just saw

Imagine spending millions on a campaign only to have shoppers associate it with another brand because you didn't use the right category signals!

So yes, you need the cues that communicate what you are. The trick is to then balance that familiarity—expertly—with creativity and distinctiveness.

The Cost of Blending In

On the inevitable flip side, there is such a thing as relying on category cues too much.

Try to tell energy bars apart at a glance, for example. Nearly all have the same smooth packaging. The same sans-serif fonts and "clean" ingredient callouts. The same earnest promises about sustainable sourcing and plant-based protein.

They've practically become interchangeable.

This is how following category rules strictly can lead a great product into a trap. When everyone signals the same benefit the exact same way, no one owns it.

Again, behavioral science can explain. The “Von Restorff effect” reveals that distinctive elements get noticed and remembered. Our brains instinctively pay attention to what's different; it's why one red rose in a sea of white ones is so special and unforgettable.

For brands, this means distinction drives memory, and memory drives choice. As David Muldoon recently explored in his piece on distinctive brand assets, it's these unique elements that create lasting mental availability and true ownability for a brand.

Break every convention, and consumers won’t know how to think of you. But follow every one? You may never get noticed at all or worse, create a surefire way another brand gets credit for your marketing efforts.

Finding Your Brand’s Category Sweet Spot

It’s all about indulgence brands finding their balance.

As called out in Hacking the Human Mind (the recent book from Method1 President MichaelAaron Flicker and Senior Behavioral Science Advisor Richard Shotton), the goal is to achieve “optimal newness.” Being neither 100% novel or 100% known, but rather somewhere in the middle. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy first formalized this principle as MAYA: most advanced yet acceptable.

The most successful brands do this, respecting category cues enough to be recognized and trusted. But they also own something distinctive enough to be remembered and crucially—purchased. The cognitive ease of the experience making choice feel irresistible.

Think about RX Bars and their radical transparency: “3 egg whites, 6 almonds, 4 cashews...” They kept faithful to many energy bar category cues—portable size, protein callouts—but created a distinctive way to communicate ingredients. As they refined this approach, the brand rose from “obscurity” to become the #3 wellness bar at natural-food retailers, with revenue growing from $2M to $160M in under five years.

Or consider Method1’s freshly-launched client Fuego Hard Ginger Beer. In an RTD market drowning in fruit flavors, Fuego kept the category cues that mattered:

• Slim cans
• ABV callouts
• Refreshment cues

But they also claimed distinctive territory: ginger. The flavor? Unique. That deconstructed ginger plant across Fuego’s packaging? It's the only thing you see in a cooler full of watermelon and black cherry. They sold out their entire inventory at Coachella in hours.

There’s no single approach or universal formula to balancing category cues and distinctiveness. But after working with dozens of brands navigating this tension, I’ve found these four steps provide a helpful framework.

1. Map your category's non-negotiables

Grab the top 5-10 brands in your competitive set—the ones with enduring consumer loyalty, or the premiums you’re looking to unseat.

Then, analyze consistencies and themes across:

• Package structure
• Colors
• Shapes
• Tactile experience
• Typography
• Language/messaging
• Imagery

What shows up in 80% or more of these brands? Those are your category cues that help create a sense of “place” for consumers.

2. Explore what these cues actually mean

This is where it gets interesting.

Some category cues send important signals to consumers. Experienced brand strategists know which elements carry real meaning:

• Quality signals: Heavy glass bottles, thick packaging stock, metallic foil accents, embossed details
• Authenticity markers: Kraft paper textures, purposeful “imperfections,” founder signatures, handwritten elements, small-batch callouts
• Freshness indicators: Clear windows, visible products, peel-fresh seals, harvest dates

It’s important to remember, though, that these aren't rules. They're tools. Heavy glass doesn't automatically mean premium—it's one option. The same quality message might come through thick paperboards for chocolates or wax seals for artisanal goods.

Some cues, though? They’re not worth digging into too deeply for one important reason. They're just there because everyone else uses them.

These meaningless conventions are your competitive space to play in.

3. Define what makes you distinct

Look where competitors cluster, and decide how to stand meaningfully apart.

• If everyone's fighting to own "craft" with the same mason jar aesthetic, consider alternative bottle shapes or sizes
• If your category is drowning in heritage stories, consider a more modern take, even if the methods you use are similarly tried-and-true

Think of the process like jazz—you need to know the standard before you can riff. The key is building distinction on top of the right category foundation, not in spite of it.

A premium chocolate brand, for example, might discover that their direct competitors all use gold foil—not because research confirmed it actually held deeper meaning, but because “that’s what premium chocolate brands do.”

The brand that wins, however, does the work to find out what signals quality to their consumer, like:

• Thicker bars
• Visible scoring
• A heartwarming note from the founder

Swap out gold foil for an unexpected pop of turquoise, and you might just become the confection people choose on sight—from across the store.

Test your balance

Now it’s time to take a step back, rigorously reassessing everything from your packaging to your story.

Can shoppers immediately identify your category?
Can they spot what makes you memorably and meaningfully different?

If your distinctive elements fight your category cues instead of enhancing them, you're creating cognitive friction that makes choosing you harder, not easier.

But if category cues build your credibility while distinctiveness makes you special, you’re in the sweet spot.

To Become Chosen, Get Familiar

No matter the appetite within your C-suite for innovation, remember what behavioral science tells us. Your consumers actually aren't looking for the most different option. They're looking for the best option they can quickly identify and confidently choose.

The best move just isn't always the biggest departure. Sometimes it's having the confidence to honor category expectations while being fiercely distinctive in the spaces that matter most:

• Maybe you keep the premium packaging weight but introduce an unexpected opening mechanism
• Perhaps you honor visual conventions while completely reimagining the verbal territory

Look, I get it. When you've poured everything into creating a new brand, the last thing you want to hear is "make it more like the others." It feels like a creative compromise.

But category cues don't limit creativity. They focus it.

The debate isn't whether to fit in or stand out. It's about understanding that category cues and distinctive assets work together seamlessly. The cues get you recognized as trustworthy. But it's your distinctive elements that get you remembered—and chosen.

So, master your category cues first. Then make your mark. Because in a world of endless choice, challengers and creative mandates to shatter norms … looking like exactly what you are might be the boldest move of all.

To see how behavioral science helps brands build credibility and distinctiveness, explore Method1's work.

About the Author

Allison Arling-Giorgi, Head of Brand at Method1, is an expert brand-builder who harnesses deep understanding of human behavior to drive real business impact. She has spent her career helping brands in CPG and spirits industries make sense of consumers and culture, translating insight into highly effective and awarded work. Allison has been a featured speaker at conferences across the U.S., has been published in Ad Age, and has also contributed to the PBS Frontline documentary “Generation Like,” the UK Daily Mail and MediaPost.