3 ideas
To break out of category sameness, study brands and experiences far outside your own industry and import a specific mechanism they use well. The 'twist' comes from connecting two previously unrelated domains, so a bank might borrow hospitality cues from a boutique hotel rather than benchmarking only against other banks.
A brand becomes memorable not by being incrementally better than competitors but by being meaningfully different along a dimension customers care about. The strongest positioning juxtaposes an expected category convention with an unexpected element, and that tension is what makes the brand stick in memory.
Working within tight limits — a narrow audience, a single attribute, a fixed budget — forces sharper, more original brand choices than unlimited freedom does. Defining what a brand will deliberately not do or be is what gives its identity edge and clarity.