Contrast Creates Clarity
Positioning in Practice: Why Our Brains Love an Enemy
In a world overflowing with content, brands, and choices, one thing remains constant: the clearest message wins.
Yet many brands still try to differentiate by claiming superiority—“we’re better,” “more advanced,” “highest quality.” These phrases float in the abstract as they fail to stick in the mind.
The reason: our brains don’t latch onto vague excellence. Brains latch onto contrast. And how do you create the most powerful contrast? By aiming at a clear enemy.
In other words, strategic opposition isn’t just a marketing trick. It can become the secret neurological shortcut to clarity: when your brand defines what it is against, the mind more quickly grasps what the brand is. Clarity is not born in isolation but through opposition.
Our Brains are Wired for Contrast
Our brains are lazy and long to lean back in a comfortable status quo position. This has made our brains evolve to deal and make quick decisions in high-stakes environments. One of the primary tools our brains use to deal with changes is contrast detection. In both perception and cognition terms, we don’t evaluate things in isolation—we compare.
The visual cortex processes images more quickly when they contain stark contrasts like light/dark, hot/cold, safe/dangerous all to help us evaluate our environment. Similarly, the prefrontal cortex, which handles higher-order thinking, favors fast binary choices over complex analysis. This is why stories work: they offer clear distinctions—hero vs. villain, problem vs. solution, chaos vs. order.
When a brand names an enemy it leverages this mechanism. It gives the brain a reference point. Instead of leaving the audience to figure out what makes the brand great, it shows what it is not which automatically has clarity emerge from the contrast.
Strategic Enemies Clarify Your Positioning
Contrast isn’t negativity. It is definition. By declaring what you’re against, you remove ambiguity. You draw a mental line. You clarify the situation.
Take Apple’s classic “Think Different” campaign. Apple never explicitly said “we’re better than Microsoft.” Instead, it positioned itself against conformity and mediocrity—implicitly drawing a contrast with the PC world. The result? Instant clarity. Apple stood for creativity, user friendliness, and innovation. Not because Apple claimed those traits—but because it rejected the opposites.
Another example: Oatly. Rather than just promote plant-based milk as healthy or sustainable, Oatly built its brand on being anti-dairy-industry with an unapologetic and provocative tone. The sharp contrast has made Oatly one of the most recognizable brands in its category.
When a brand embraces a strategic enemy, its positioning becomes clearer, the messaging more focused, and the identity more magnetic.
Contrast Cuts Through the Noise
In a noisy marketplace, subtlety goes unnoticed. Contrast slices through. By setting up a strategic enemy, you create tension that immediate signals to the mind that there’s a choice to be made, a line to be drawn, a decision to be made to engage.
More importantly, contrast boosts memory. The brain is more likely to remember things that are distinctive and emotionally charged. Opposition creates both. That’s why rivalries like Apple vs. PC, Nike vs. Adidas, Coke vs. Pepsi linger in memory, while countless other brands fade unnoticed in the background.
Contrast Isn’t Cruel—It’s Clarifying
Some fear that defining an enemy will be negative and even provocative. But this isn’t about hostility or hate. It’s about focus. Strategic enemies can be, but don’t have to be, people or companies. They can be ideas, outdated norms, unhelpful behaviors or outmoded applications of services or products.
For example:
Spotify defines its enemy as the legacy buy-to-own music industry.
Airbnb is positioned against hotel rooms.
Salesforce went to war with installed software.
Each brand doesn’t just “compete”—it has defined a contrast. And in doing so, these brands have claimed a positioning in the mind of their customers their competitors can’t claim.
5 Practical Tips to Use Contrast in Your Brand:
Define what you are not
Start by clarifying what your brand rejects. Outdated systems? Bureaucracy? Mediocrity? Make it visible!Use the “anti” framing in your storytelling
Let customers see what you’re pushing back against. “We exist because we believe [enemy] is broken.”Avoid bland superlatives
Replace “better, faster, smarter” with clear oppositional statements that highlight your unique stance.Visualize the contrast
Use visuals, metaphors, or side-by-side comparisons to make the enemy and your alternative crystal clear.Repeat the contrast everywhere
Ensure your website, social media, sales pitches, and internal culture all communicate the same core opposition.
In sum, the best positioned brands aren’t always the loudest. They’re the ones who know what they’re not and have the courage to say so. Contrast creates clarity. And clarity is power. By defining your strategic enemy, you will define a positioning for your brand that is worth fighting for!