We compete for meanings.

At some point, the competition will match your features. They will copy your functionality, improve your price, and offer something similar with a better discount. It is inevitable. Markets increasingly resemble each other.

So, what remains? In what real territory do you compete when everything else is equal?

The answer lies in something that cannot be copied so easily: the meaning that you build around what you do.

When function is no longer enough.

There comes a time when all products in a category perform their basic function well. The technical differences are minimal, almost imperceptible. When a product stops being just its function and becomes a symbol—of identity, belonging, values—you are no longer buying a practical solution. You are choosing a way to see yourself.

Design is the language we use to shape this brand identity. Every color, every word, every detail of the experience is saying something about who you are as a brand. It is meaning-making.

We like to think that we make rational decisions, but in reality, we choose things that align with how we want to see ourselves. With the values that matter to us. With the communities we want to belong to.

The brands that grasp this stop selling features to offer meaning. And that’s where they become difficult to replace, because you are not competing just with functional alternatives. You are occupying a symbolic space in someone’s life.

How it is built.

First, you need clarity about what you represent. What you stand for, what you want to change, why you exist beyond selling something. Without that clarity, any design effort is just noise.

Then comes coherence. If each touchpoint communicates something different, the meaning evaporates. Everything has to point in the same direction.

And then there is time. Meaning is not built in a three-month campaign. It is built over years of being consistent, of delivering what you promise in the long term.

Design as a business decision.

Opting for a visual style is not just a matter of taste; it is a statement of intent. Choosing a formal or informal tone defines your personality as a brand. Every design decision is, in fact, a business decision.

This requires knowing your audience not just in functional terms, but also emotionally: what matters to them, what they aspire to be, what culture surrounds them. You cannot mean something to everyone. You have to choose for whom you want to be relevant.

There is something that cannot be copied: years of cultural building. Years of coherence. Years of authentic connection with a specific community. You can imitate a design, replicate a function, match a price. You cannot replicate meaning built with time and authenticity.

There lies the real advantage. In having built something that resonates so deeply with certain people that they do not consider alternatives, not because they do not exist, but because no other brand means the same to them.

Where to start.

Before you start designing, there is one question that changes everything: what does this mean for the people who will use it?

Not what it does or how it works. What it represents in their lives. What role it plays in their identity. What it helps them express about themselves.

Competing for meaning is the only sustainable way to build something that truly matters and aids in business objectives.

Design, when you understand it as meaning-making and not just aesthetics, is what enables that transformation. It is the difference between being just another option in the market or being the only viable choice for the right people.