“I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”
Yes, that’s quite a memorable claim from the Most Interesting Man in the World… played by the iconic, bearded gentleman, Jonathan Goldsmith.
The storyline continues to resonate some two decades after its initial launch. And why not?
Everyone wants to be interesting.
Plenty of building product brands are talking. They just stopped sounding interesting.
Interesting isn’t louder. It’s more specific.
More Content… Less Memorable
AI can draft, summarize, resize and translate. Even scrape messaging from a spec sheet into a social post.
That’s real progress. It’s also creating a new problem.
When every brand uses similar narratives – trained on the same internet – messages start to average out.
Smooth and polished… becomes, well forgettable. And audiences are already noticing.
So, it’s no surprise that Gartner predicts next year, 20% of brands will lean on the “absence-of-AI” as a key differentiator. Read that again. Being human – and more interesting – is becoming a positioning strategy.
Where People Still Win
Narrowing focus with precise promises… changes the way messaging gets found. Trusted. And acted on.
Strategy is a choice. Choices take judgment. That’s why every brand leveraging large-language model tools needs an AI lifeguard.
Breaking through the current sea-of-sameness can’t be cured by reaching a greater number of eyeballs. Rather, it’s to talk to a single prospect so precisely they can’t turn away.
Real stories like the dealer who has kept your product on the counter for 22 years because it never comes back. Or an architect who specified you because a rep picked up the phone at 7 p.m. A machine can describe a product. Only people can tell what it feels like to trust it. That’s the heart of good storytelling.
Contractors trust contractors. Builders listen to builders. And they are far more likely to believe what a peer says about a solution… than what a brand says about itself.
When audiences see their own aspirations and pressures in a message, a brand promise earns another moment of attention… even from an algorithm designed to feed them something else.
That’s why trade show booths, jobsite visits, dealer events and real installer voices keep earning their place.
About 69% of B2B marketing leaders agree purchasing decisions are emotionally driven. And 85% of consumers say they’ll pay more for brands they see as truly authentic.
Homeowners feel that. So do the pros who work for them.
Say What Only You… Can Claim
Authenticity may be the most overused word in marketing. So, let’s make it practical.
A machine can summarize what has already been said. It can’t notice what hasn’t been claimed yet…. to help a product become a “category of one.”
Here’s the bonus. Being specific doesn’t just win over people. Machines reward it too.
AI search tools look for something they can quote with confidence: a number, a named application, a verified result. Content with specific statistics can raise AI citation rates by 30% to 40%. Vague claims like “industry-leading” and “best-in-class” give a machine nothing to repeat… and give a buyer nothing to remember.
Compare “fast installation” with “a two-person crew can side a 2,400-square-foot home in one day.” Only one of those gets quoted. By an algorithm, a dealer or a builder on the next jobsite.
So before any claim goes out the door, ask for the proof behind it. Interesting to people. Quotable by machines.
A message that reads fine on a screen can land badly on a jobsite. Audiences in the trades catch that. Software usually doesn’t.
Some Four Decades of Listening
K&A has been exclusively focused on home and building products since 1987. That’s nearly 40 years of trade shows, dealer counters, jobsites and specifier lunch-n-learns. Time that builds an ear for what makes this industry tick… and what resonates best.
The stories we tell for clients – and their tone – stay human. Directed to a single buyer exactly where they are on their journey. After all, if that persona could be anyone… the promise will attract no one.
One Last Thought
The Most Interesting Man in the World never professed to be perfect. With a twinkle, he merely claimed to be interesting.
Your brand needs a voice your audiences will recognize as a unique selling proposition. It needs stories only it can promise, and claims specific enough to quote. With messaging only someone who has stood on a jobsite would have.
If your reason-to-believe has started to sound a little too similar to competitors, let’s compare notes. Email me at sk@kleberandassociates.com to get the conversation started.
Stay interesting, my friends.
