Unless your brand is helping to create a new industry sector, it’s tough to differentiate. There are typically five other brands offering something similar to what your company is offering. Even if your what is better and smarter, meaning what you do, it’s still often tough to stand out that way. So a lot of small and midsize brands have tried to show up as different by getting more personal—they try to differentiate on their why. As in why they are doing what they are doing.

This approach has become fairly widespread, maybe because the people responsible for messaging can’t figure out what else to do. But it’s also part of a larger trend, and a good one, to use less tired business rhetoric and sound more human. After all, businesses are run by human beings, at least for now.

The problem with this approach is that getting personal isn’t the same as being relevant. While you’re why is undoubtedly important to you, it might not matter to your audiences. Your audiences don’t necessarily care why you’re doing what you’re doing, so much as they care about what you can do for them.

Also, somewhat ironically, people’s motivations aren’t always that different.  So no matter how sincere and personal your why is, it might be quite similar to someone else’s in your space.

This doesn’t mean that your message should be sterilized of sincere, personal feeling. Only that feeling alone usually won’t differentiate you. So if you’re what is fairly similar to competitors, that is what you offer. And your why may or may not be different, but it falls short of strategic relevance. Where should you look for your differentiation? The answer often times is your how. How you deliver what you deliver.