Why So Many Brands On Instagram Look The Same

The Casper mattress. The Allbirds sneaker. Brandless mouthwash or pasta sauce. Birchbox, Prose, Snowe, and Keeps. If you are a living, breathing, social media-using human being, you’ve probably seen these products pop up in your Instagram feed. They’re a marketing paradox: a simultaneous undersell and oversell. They offer minimal products with a minimal logos that somehow still speak clearly about their superiority. Some have criticized this trend as “blanding,” but it seems to work well on Instagram–where organic engagement with brands is high, and some 80% of users follow at least one business. Forty percent of millennial-aged women responding to a recent Bustle poll said Instagram was the most effective place for brands to reach them, and in this complex ecosystem of new brands and eager consumers, less seems to be more. Read more at Fast Company.