5 Ways Brands Can Make Ordinary Products More Interesting

Not every product has an obvious story. A bottle of shampoo, a notebook, a packet of snacks, or a basic household cleaner can easily become just another item on a crowded shelf. But that does not mean Ordinary Products have to remain ordinary in the eyes of consumers. Often, the difference comes down to how a brand presents the product, explains its value, and creates a reason for people to care.

The Ordinary offers a useful example. Its skincare products are built around familiar ingredients, straightforward formulas, and clinical-looking packaging, yet the brand has created a strong identity around transparency and education. Its approach shows that brands do not always need to make a product radically different to make it more interesting. They can make the story around it more useful, distinctive, and engaging.

How Brands Make Ordinary Products Intriguing

1. Give the product a clear point of view

When a product category is crowded, simply saying that your product is better is rarely enough. Brands need to be clear about what they believe, what they do differently, and why that matters to the customer.

The Ordinary built much of its identity around a simple idea: make skincare feel less complicated and more transparent. Its product names, ingredient-focused communication, and educational content all reinforce that positioning. Instead of hiding behind vague claims, the brand puts information at the centre of the experience.

The lesson for other brands is straightforward. Even an everyday product can become more distinctive when it has a clear reason for existing beyond simply being another option on the shelf.

2. Make the product easier to understand

Complexity is not the same as sophistication. In many categories, consumers are simply trying to understand what a product does, whether it is right for them, and how they should use it.

Brands can make Ordinary Products more engaging by turning information into part of the experience. This could mean useful demonstrations, simple explainers, comparisons, FAQs, tutorials, or content that answers questions customers already have. The Ordinary, for example, uses educational social content and customer support to help people understand its formulas and how to use them.

3. Let customers shape the story

Customers can make a product interesting in ways that a brand cannot always manufacture internally. Reviews, demonstrations, routines, before-and-after content, and personal experiences can show how a product fits into real life.

The Ordinary has benefited from customers creating and sharing content around its products, while independent fan communities have also discussed routines, reviews, and product experiences.

For brands, the opportunity is to make participation easy. Encourage customers to share how they use the product, ask questions, offer feedback or contribute ideas. The result is not just more content. It can also make the brand feel more human and give prospective customers useful proof from people like them.

4. Improve the experience, not just the product

Innovation does not always mean adding another feature. Sometimes, it means removing friction.

Research and feedback can reveal simple ways to make an existing product more useful, accessible, or convenient. Fast Company, for instance, highlights the importance of solving real customer problems, testing ideas with users, and using feedback throughout the innovation process.

Packaging can also become part of this process. Beauty brands have experimented with refillable formats, more sustainable materials, and accessible packaging, while multi-use products can reduce the effort required from consumers.

A small improvement that genuinely makes someone’s life easier can be more meaningful than a flashy feature nobody asked for.

Also read: 5 Ways Brands Can Use Digital Marketing Without Becoming Generic

5. Create moments people remember

Sometimes, the product itself does not need to change at all. The experience around it can.

A thoughtful sample, unexpected reward, personalised recommendation, useful insert, or small moment of surprise can make an otherwise routine purchase feel different. Surprise-and-delight marketing, for example, is designed around creating positive experiences for existing customers and strengthening their relationship with a brand.

This is particularly useful for Ordinary Products, because the product may already be familiar. A memorable experience gives consumers something else to associate with it.

Ultimately, making an ordinary product interesting is less about making it look extraordinary and more about finding the details that matter. A clear point of view, useful information, customer participation, thoughtful innovation, and memorable experiences can all give familiar products a stronger place in people’s minds.

The best part is that none of these approaches requires a brand to pretend its product is something it is not. Sometimes, making a product interesting simply means helping people see its value in a new way.

– Written by Saad Rashid, an experienced journalist with extensive experience across both print and digital media. He has worked with various publications in India and internationally and has reached millions of readers through his thought-provoking articles.

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