Opinion: The DNA of a brand message that ‘no one' can steal

Tahawul Tech

10-05-2025

Iman Ghorayeb, a seasoned communications leader is back with another superb thought provoking op-ed on the importance of protecting the message of your brand. She outlines the science behind brand messaging and what businesses can do to protect to incubate their messaging from being imitated.
In tech, it's not just innovation that gets imitated—it's your narrative.
You've spent months in deep alignment: shaping a voice that reflects your IP, market ambition, and the truth of what your company uniquely delivers. The language is precise. The positioning is intentional. It's not just messaging; it's a strategic narrative designed to lead.
And then, just weeks after launch, it begins to surface elsewhere. Competitors echo your phrasing. Familiar lines appear on websites with none of the same foundation. The story you built to differentiate is suddenly being used to blend in.
It's not just frustrating. It's costly.
Because when your narrative gets borrowed without your DNA behind it, it doesn't just lose impact. It dilutes your edge and confuses your market.
When Replication Becomes a Risk
In biology, replication drives continuity: genes copy themselves across generations, carrying the instructions for how life functions—and allowing life to sustain, adapt, and thrive.
But for replication to work, it depends on two things: precision and context.
Precision ensures the genetic instructions are copied accurately; context ensures those instructions are activated at the right time, in the right environment, and within the right system.
When precision or context are off, even slightly, the result can be harmful.
Take sickle cell disease: it's caused by a single-point mutation in the gene that produces hemoglobin. That tiny error alters the shape of red blood cells, making them rigid and sickle-shaped instead of round and flexible. The result is poor oxygen flow, chronic pain, and widespread dysfunction: one small misalignment—replicated across a system, leads to breakdown. The same is true in brand messaging.
A phrase might sound powerful in one organization. But when copied into another—without the right foundation, without precision in the message or context within the brand, it creates confusion. And when that confusion is scaled, it begins to undermine everything the message was meant to support.
In B2B tech, messaging spreads fast. A compelling phrase lands in the market, and suddenly it's everywhere: the same tone, the same claims, the same safe promises. Replication happens quickly; it is a crowded space where language that feels familiar or validated often gets picked up without pause.
But evolution doesn't come from replication. It comes from meaningful mutation: messaging that grows from a company's own DNA, the internal blueprint of what a company believes, builds, values, and is becoming. It's what makes a message not just sound and be right.
As a marketing communications consultant, I've led many brand refreshes. And in every case, we start by decoding that DNA. We get clear on what's real, what's different, and what's next—then craft messaging that reflects it all with intention.
When it's built that way, it lands: internally, it aligns teams and xxternally, it creates clarity.
But almost without fail, I see the same thing happen next: Within a few months, fragments of that original message start appearing across the market. Competitors, often with very different products, audiences, or values and begin echoing the tone, mimicking the phrasing, and adopting the style.It's not inspiration.It's messaging theft.
And the damage isn't just emotional—it's strategic. Because when others borrow your message without your DNA, they don't just copy your words. They dilute your difference and confuse your market.
The Strategic Cost of Messaging Theft
In nature, a gene that functions in one species can cause dysfunction in another if the system isn't built to support it. The same is true in business.
Messaging that performs well in one company often gets copied by others hoping to recreate the same impact. But without alignment to internal strategy, product, culture, and market position, borrowed messaging doesn't clarify—it confuses.
And confusion doesn't scale.
Marketers rarely copy out of laziness. More often, it's a response to real pressure—from leadership, investors, or peers, to stay visible, sound relevant, and move faster.
But when messaging is lifted from the outside instead of grown from within, the consequences go far deeper than brand voice. They affect performance, alignment, and credibility across the business.
Here's what happens when messaging is misaligned:
Customer Trust Erodes: Promises sound compelling but don't match the product experience. Buyers sense the gap and begin to question the value, not just the words.
Promises sound compelling but don't match the product experience. Buyers sense the gap and begin to question the value, not just the words. Sales and Product Teams Lose Confidence: w When messaging isn't rooted in real capabilities or direction, go-to-market teams struggle to deliver it consistently. Alignment breaks. Confusion spreads internally before it ever reaches the market.
When messaging isn't rooted in real capabilities or direction, go-to-market teams struggle to deliver it consistently. Alignment breaks. Confusion spreads internally before it ever reaches the market. Differentiation Disappears: In categories already flooded with sameness, replication makes your brand indistinguishable. The more your message sounds like everyone else's, the harder it becomes to lead.
And the impact doesn't stop at your company's borders. When every brand in a category starts echoing the same claims, the entire ecosystem suffers. Buyers grow skeptical. Value becomes harder to prove. Trust in the category erodes, and innovation becomes harder to spot. What could be a dynamic, differentiated market devolves into noise—and winning becomes a triple stretch: breaking through, standing out, and closing with confidence.
Replication may feel like progress in the moment. But when it isn't based on your company's DNA, it stops being a strategy and becomes a real risk.
How to Evolve Your Messaging with Purpose
In biology, not all mutations are random. Some help the organism adapt to its environment—to become stronger, more resilient, and better suited to survive.
The same idea applies to brand messaging. Let's call it Mutation with purpose: when there is an intentional evolution of a message to reflect who your company truly is, what it's becoming, and how it's positioned to lead.
Unlike replication, which borrows from others, purposeful mutation begins with your DNA, your intellectual property, culture, values, and strategic ambition, and expresses it in a way that feels inevitable, original, and defensible.
Here's how to evolve your messaging with intention:
Anchor the Message in Your Strategic DNA
Your message should be built from the inside out, rooted in what you've built, how your teams operate, and the direction your business is going.
If the message can't be tied directly to your product capabilities, customer insight, or future roadmap, it's a creative idea, not a strategic one.
When messaging reflects your reality, it earns internal adoption and external credibility. It aligns teams and sets a clear direction for everything that follows.
Adapt as You Grow—Without Losing the Core
Companies change. So should messaging. But change should reflect maturity, not marketing trends. Your evolution should highlight how your differentiation is becoming more valuable to the market—not how you're trying to keep up.
Brands that evolve intentionally maintain consistency while staying relevant. They don't reinvent themselves every quarter—they sharpen their signal over time.
Express It in a Way Only You Can
A powerful message doesn't just say something true. It says it in a way that no one else would or could. Tone, structure, rhythm, visuals are tools to communicate identity, not decoration. Great messaging has a fingerprint.
When your message is unmistakably yours, it becomes nearly impossible to steal. Others can mimic the structure, but they can't fake the truth behind it.
Turn the Urge to Copy into a Clue
When you find yourself wanting to borrow someone else's language, pause. That instinct is telling you something: You're hungry for clarity, resonance, or differentiation.
Use that signal—not to replicate—but to ask a better question: What is it about that message that feels powerful—and how can we express our version of that truth, rooted in who we are?
The temptation to steal often comes from a lack of alignment or clarity. When you name the feeling behind it, you can redirect the energy into strategy—not imitation.
Purposeful messaging mutation is when you express what's always been true, but with more clarity, more courage, and more precision. It's how strong brands evolve and why their stories last.
Of course, that's not easy. The pressure to stand out is real and the pace is relentless. And in a market flooded with sameness, the instinct to borrow what's working for someone else is completely understandable. But resist that instinct: take the time to reflect, to align, to say something only your brand can say and create a narrative that no one else can own.
So the next time you sit down to write a message—pause. Are you replicating what you've seen? Or are you expressing something only your brand can say?
Great messaging doesn't just survive the market. It evolves with it. And like everything built on strong DNA—when it's precise and in context, it lasts.
🧬 Biological DNA vs. Brand DNA
Biological DNA Brand / Company DNA Genetic code that defines an organism Strategic identity that defines a company Inherited from parents Formed from product, people, culture, and market experience Determines traits and biological functions Shapes messaging, tone, positioning, and external perception Mutates to adapt or evolve Evolves through reflection, clarity, and intentional strategic shifts Cannot be copied exactly Messaging can be mimicked—but depth, meaning, and internal alignment can't be faked Encodes survival and reproduction strategies Encodes unique value proposition, market fit, and future direction Expressed through visible traits Expressed through voice, storytelling, campaigns, and culture Supports diversity in ecosystems Drives true differentiation in competitive markets