Premium compared to what?

"We want it to feel premium." It's the most common line in creative briefs, and the least helpful. Not because it's wrong, but because it's unfinished. Premium is not a look. It's a comparison.

The default version of premium

Ask a room of people to picture "premium" and you'll get the same answer: black or cream backgrounds, a thin serif, lots of space, a gold detail, slow-motion video. It's a recognisable style. That's the problem. If every brand that wants to look premium reaches for the same signals, the signals stop meaning anything.

Worse, they can mean the wrong thing. For a hotel, premium might suggest exclusive and expensive, when the guest actually wants warm and welcoming. For an advisory firm, premium might suggest distant, when the client wants someone senior who picks up the phone.

Three questions that finish the brief

When a client asks for premium, we ask three questions back.

1. Premium compared to whom? Name the competitors. Premium is relative to the people next to you on the shelf, in the search results, or in the pitch.
2. Premium to whom? A first-time buyer and a long-standing customer read quality differently. So do a 25-year-old and a 60-year-old. Who must believe this?
3. Premium because of what? What earns the price? Expertise, craft, access, service, provenance? Premium needs a reason, or it reads as pretension.

The answers usually point somewhere more interesting than gold foil.

What premium actually signals

In our experience, people read quality from a few things that have little to do with a particular style.

• Confidence. Saying less, and meaning it. One clear idea instead of ten claims.
• Care. Details that show someone paid attention: the right word, consistent spacing, a well-cropped photograph.
• Consistency. The same quality at every touchpoint, from the homepage to the invoice.
• Specificity. Real numbers, real names, real places. Vague language feels cheap however beautifully it's set.

None of these require a particular colour palette. All of them require thinking.

Premium that belongs to you

The goal isn't to look like the most expensive brand in your category. It's to look like the best version of yourself, clearly enough that customers understand why you're worth it.

Sometimes that's quiet and restrained. Sometimes it's bold, warm or even playful. A property developer's premium is different from a wellness brand's, and both are different from a law firm's.

So next time you write "premium" in a brief, finish the sentence. Premium compared to whom, to whom, and because of what? That's where the brief starts.