The
New Rules of Branding
It's no news that strong brands create shareholder
value. As one data point of our research shows, companies with
strong brands have shareholder returns of 1.9 points more than
their industries' average.
What is new is the swift emergence of
new brands that, in a marketing environment marked by media fragmentation,
changing technology, and demanding customers, are capturing brand
strength scores greater than longstanding incumbent brands. The
strength of such brands is matched only by the speed at which
they are being built. A process that once took decades now gets
done in a few years, as shown by 13-year old Starbucks' creation
of greater brand strength than 108-year old Maxwell House. Older
brands like Campbell Soup and AT&T still have great strength,
but relative newcomers as diverse as YouTube, MySpace, Digg and Twitter have reached the same levels
of strength with remarkable speed.
These
young brands have generated their strength by creating and consistently
delivering distinctive performance benefits with compelling emotional
benefits found in the brands' personality.
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Too many marketers are locked into a functional
approach, stressing product features and quality, with little
room to differentiate their brands. As the differences in product
quality narrow, many brands are left with a “me-too†status
which, in today's crowded marketing environment, fails to capture
customers' attention.
Fortunately, the dimensions of branding are
exploding as customers' needs shift and new technologies emerge
that can enhance consumers' experience with the brand. New approaches
to branding and technology can meet the heightened needs of consumers,
who now expect more from marketers than functional benefits. They also want
process benefits (e.g., new ways to research and buy) and relationship benefits
(e.g., ongoing contact with the marketer). |