I’m a differentiation expert. Over the years, I’ve helped create hundreds of brand stories. You might assume that would make me jaded. But it hasn’t. Every now and then, I still buy into a brand story for the romance of it.

A few days ago, I was in the supermarket and noticed a box of coffee pods from Chock full O’Nuts. It’s an old brand, one I remember from way back. What stopped me, though, was the flavor name: Midtown Manhattan.

The front of the box showed a loosely sketched New York skyline. Most of the buildings were intentionally indistinct. One wasn’t. The Empire State Building was drawn clearly and in color.

I grew up in Queens, New York, but for the first thirty or so years of my life, Midtown Manhattan was where I spent most of my time. I took the 7 train in. I went to Tannen’s Magic at 1540 Broadway. I met friends, went to movies, had lunch, dinner, wandered. Midtown wasn’t something I mythologized. I mean, the streets were gritty and dangerous (Think: The French Connection, Taxi Driver, and Serpico). But the place was familiar.

I bought the box of coffee because I knew that every time I opened the kitchen cabinet and saw it, I’d smile. So I was buying a week and a half worth of smiles.

I brought it home and put it away. This morning, though, when I opened the cabinet, I noticed the box’s side panel for the first time.

At the top was a circle. Along the top and bottom edges of that circle it said PREMIUM COFFEE. In large letters inside the circle it read NO NUTS. Below that, written in the first person, was the company’s compressed history:

1920s: We sold nuts.

1930s: We sold nuts and coffee.

NOW: We don’t sell nuts. We just sell coffee.

But we like our name. CHOCK FULL O’ NUTS. PREMIUM COFFEE. NO NUTS.

INGREDIENTS: COFFEE.

I especially love that line, “But we like our name.”

For roughly the first fifty years of the company’s life, having “nuts” in the name wasn’t a problem. Nut allergies either weren’t as prevalent, weren’t recognized the way they are now, or were misrecognized. Over time, especially starting in the 1980s, that changed. Nut allergies became medically defined, socially visible, and operationally serious. At that point, a name like this, attached to a product that didn’t contain a single nut, stopped being quirky and started being a liability.

What’s interesting is how the brand handled it. They didn’t rename themselves or bury the issue. They put the explanation on one side panel, made sure you couldn’t miss it if you were looking, and then didn’t let it interfere with anything else.

What I admire here is the deliberateness. They told the truth once, in plain language, and trusted the customer to absorb it without being managed.

In business, differentiation is often framed as a lot of newness, as in a lot of invention, new positioning, new claims, new language. But it can be knowing exactly where to put the explanation so it’s available but not intrusive, and then having the confidence to say this is who we are and we’re fine with it.