Thai sellers have a wonderful phrase for tourists who are comparing products. You point at a shirt you like, and they show you a similar shirt with a different color or a slightly different fabric or a lower price. “Same same but different,” they say with a smile. The phrase is charming because it’s genuinely honest. The product is familiar enough to recognize and different enough to notice, and the seller isn’t trying to pretend otherwise.
The phrase stuck with me for years after I left Thailand. It’s the most honest marketing I’ve ever heard, and most brands could learn something from a street seller in Bangkok.
The Problem with Too Different
Most brands try too hard to be different from their competitors. They invent new categories that no customer has ever asked for. They coin new words that no one understands. They claim to have reinvented everything from accounting software to toothbrushes. The problem is that customers don’t believe most of these claims, and the familiar parts of a product feel familiar for a reason. They work the way customers expect them to work.
A chair that looks nothing like a chair isn’t innovative. It’s confusing, and a confused customer doesn’t buy. A headline that follows no known structure isn’t creative. It’s unreadable, and an unreadable headline gets scrolled past. When you make something too different, the novelty you worked so hard to create becomes a barrier instead of a draw, and the customer moves on to something that feels safer and more familiar.
The Problem with Too Same
The opposite problem is actually worse for most brands. When you make something too similar to everything else, the customer scrolls past without registering that you exist at all. Your headline sounds like every other headline in your industry. Your brand voice sounds like every other brand voice that hired the same agency. Your product sounds like every other product that launched last quarter.
A hundred shirts that look exactly the same become a blur. A hundred brands that sound exactly the same become noise, and the customer picks one at random or buys nothing at all. Being forgettable is more expensive than being confusing, because at least confusion gets a reaction that you can learn from.
The Sweet Spot Where Thai Sellers Live
The Thai seller shows you something familiar right away. A shirt. You know what a shirt is, you know how to judge its quality, and you know roughly what it should cost. The frame is comfortable and requires no explanation. Then the seller shows you the difference. The color is different from the one you pointed at. The fabric is close but not the same. The price is lower than the one you were looking at. Not everything changed, and that’s the point. Just enough changed to matter.
The best copy works exactly the same way. A headline feels like something you’ve heard before, which means it lands immediately and doesn’t confuse you, but it says something you haven’t heard before, which means it earns your attention. A structure feels comfortable and familiar, but it delivers a surprise somewhere along the way. A voice sounds like a friend or a trusted advisor, but it says something that friend never said before.
The Most Honest Marketing You Will Ever Hear
The Thai seller isn’t trying to trick you with that phrase. They’re telling you exactly what the product is and exactly how it relates to the product you were already considering. The new shirt is the same as the old shirt in most of the ways that matter. But it’s different in a few specific ways, and those differences might matter to you or they might not. Same same but different isn’t a lie or a dodge. It’s the most honest positioning statement you’ll ever hear from any seller in any country.
Before you write another word of copy, ask yourself what’s the same about your product compared to what the customer already knows, and ask yourself what’s different. Admit the same openly so the customer feels oriented and safe. Show the different clearly so the customer understands why you’re worth their time. Then let the customer decide if the difference matters to them. That’s the whole job.
I’m currently looking for a copywriting role where I can help brands find that sweet spot between familiar and fresh. If you’re tired of being either forgettable or confusing, view my portfolio or reach out. I’d love to talk about what your brand sounds like when it’s same same but different.