Relatability is a Trap: Why Your Brand Needs a Soul to Survive | Isabelle Mereje

Marketing has an identity crisis.

For a decade, we’ve been fed the same lie: that the ultimate goal of a brand is to be "relatable." We’re coached to mirror the audience, to perform "Relatability Theater," and to shave off our edges until we blend into the background noise of the feed.

But here is the truth: Relatability is a race to the middle. It’s for the replaceable.

I’m not interested in helping brands "blend in." I’m interested in NARRATIVE ARCHITECTURE. I build brand identities with enough soul to survive the transition from a digital screen to a dinner table conversation.

Because if your brand can’t survive that transition, it isn't an identity. It’s just an ad.

The Connection Deficit

Most brands suffer from what I call a Connection Deficit. They try to bridge the gap with volume—more content, more trends, more "humanizing" filters. But real connection isn’t a volume game; it’s an architectural one.

We’ve traded depth for reach. We’ve traded resonance for the scroll.

Real connection happens when a brand stops performing and starts naming the one truth the audience is too afraid to mention. That requires Investigative Storytelling. It’s about deconstructing the "corporate beige" until you find the skeletal structure of why the brand actually matters to a human being at 8:00 PM on a Tuesday.

The Dinner Table Test

This is my litmus test for brand survival.

If I took away your Instagram, your LinkedIn, and your entire ad spend today—would your customers still have a reason to talk about you at dinner tonight?

The Screen is for visibility. It’s fleeting. It’s the "Like" that is forgotten in three seconds.

The Table is for resonance. It’s where legacies are debated, defended, and shared.

Narrative Architecture ensures that your message is "portable." It gives your brand the structural integrity to stay with the user long after they’ve put their phone face-down. If you aren't building for the table, you're just paying for temporary attention.

Creating the "Offline Echo"

Authority isn’t built in your comments section. It’s built in the rooms you aren’t even in.

I optimize for the Offline Echo—the specific language and "truth" a customer carries with them into their real lives. When a brand has soul, its story doesn't change based on the platform. It remains inevitable. It becomes part of the cultural fabric of the people who use it.

What I Do Differently: The Shift to Linguistic Resonance

In my "What I Do Differently" section, I always challenge the "Digital-First" obsession.

If I were building your brand strategy from scratch today, I would stop looking at the aesthetics of the grid and start looking at Linguistic Resonance. I’d ask: What are the three words we want a customer to say to their spouse about us tonight? When you build for the dinner table, the digital metrics stop being the goal and start being the byproduct.

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The Verdict: Trend or Truth?

We are moving into an era where "Relatability Theater" is being tuned out by a world starving for something structural. Something real.

The question for every marketing leader and growth head is simple: Are you building for a "Like" today, or are you building a legacy that can survive the night?