Summary

The myth is that the best product wins recognition. In reality, markets adopt the clearest narrative, not the first idea. Brand as a system—naming, claim, cadence, proof—endures. Own the story, and adoption translates into price integrity and shorter sales cycles.

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Our Perspective

What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.

The Real Bottleneck

Innovations don’t earn credit on their own; they earn it when the market can easily retell the story behind them. When your language is loose or constantly changing, buyers default to the clearest competing label they’ve heard. That’s when pricing power slips, sales cycles drag, and your work is evaluated through someone else’s frame. It isn’t that rivals out-invent you. They out-clarify you.

Attribution follows repetition, not just novelty. The teams that get rewarded make their idea easy to cite in rooms they’re not in: a name that travels, a one-line claim people can quote, and proof that is easy to share. That combination makes your innovation legible and therefore adoptable.

Narrative As System

Treat brand not as promotion but as the operating system for attribution. That means codifying how your innovation is framed, released, and evidenced—every time. BCG notes that organisations with a strong innovation culture are about 60% more likely to lead in innovation, which in practice hinges on discipline, cadence and shared language.

Make the system practical:

• Codify the idea: a distinct name, a simple structure, and a one-line claim others can repeat without you.
• Pair releases with enablement: education for customers, tools for sales, consistent messaging across all teams.
• Anchor proof: dated case evidence, independent reviews, and trademarks to secure credit across channels.

Leadership Implications

In our experience with growth-stage organisations, misattribution often traces back to an internal assumption that results will “speak for themselves.” They rarely do. Leaders need to make narrative ownership a board-level concern, because it compounds across commercial, operational and cultural lines.

What to expect if you don’t:

• Price integrity erodes when buyers credit the wrong origin; negotiations become about parity, not value.
• Roadmaps drift toward competitor talking points; your team’s focus fragments and decisions slow.
• Talent and partners hedge; the absence of a clear story invites doubt and distraction.

Execution Cadence

Set a release rhythm and measure narrative adoption, not just reach. Track whether prospects and analysts use your exact terms, whether search demand grows around your chosen language, and whether your one-line claim shows up in late-stage conversations. If it doesn’t, the market is learning from someone else.

Build a calendar that pairs product moments with education, category framing and fresh proof. Over time, the market will borrow your words to understand the space—which is when perception hardens around your leadership. The point isn’t louder communication; it’s consistent authorship of how the category is understood.

When organisations own the language of an idea, they don’t just launch features—they set the agenda, and adoption accelerates because the path to understanding is already paved.

Sources:

• An Innovation Culture That Gets Results — BCG
• Branding: too often overlooked in disruptive innovation and social purpose arenas — Journal of Brand Management

Further Resources

1. Beyond Product: Building Category Leadership Through Narrative
2. Owning Buyer Jobs: The Key to Effective Positioning
3. Positioning Strategies That Protect Margins Under Price Pressure

No two brand journeys are the same — connect with us if you’d like to test where your next step might lead. Let’s talk.

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