Powerful brands provide unique selling proposition’s by differentiating from those of the competitors in terms of quality, awareness, relevance, and brand association.

Profiling brand values requires understanding in the greatest dept how the consumer perceives the brand in all possible aspects and associations. The objective is to understand the core essences for why the consumers buy/use the brand above the competitors offer. Understanding helps to uncover new breakthrough opportunities, capitalizing in the core attributions of the brand perceived values.

Brands are Unique Trademarks

The definition of a brand is; it is a trademark that distinctions from those of the competitors.

It is a widely spread misunderstanding that private labels and economy products are not considered brands. In spite of the fact that many of these brands are considered economy or mainstream products competing mainly on price – and therefore not considered to have the same uniqueness as for a strong brand name. Several economic brand products initially competing on prices have evolved over time, to becoming a mainstream brand products, and furthermore into becoming strong brand names.

Understand the Brands before Building Them

Companies do not always manage and control development of their brand and product structure. In that case companies basically grow into their current situation and possess brands that even are very competitive within their internal brand architectural structure. These could be brands with similar brand positions. Therefore, it can be difficult to maintain their sales in the same market over time. Imagine the complexities to effectively manage two competitive brands portfolios growths. What should be the companies brand priorities, brand A or B? Moreover, all the recent mergers, acquisitions and product extensions have added complexities to the brand portfolio management of many companies.

To generate understanding of the brand values before building them can be taken through the following two analysis processes:

A. Map the brand architecture: Companies that operate with clear and simple brand architecture will become the winners. The brand architecture reveals the harmonization within and between brands, making clear how a company intends to capture, create and fulfill values through their brands structural arrangements.

B. Brand positioning: One must understand what a brand stands for and the brand innovation and the marketing mix must stay on track with the “brand promise”. Moreover, the brand positioning is consequently taken through extensive analysis and reality check in the consumer insight assessment (next chapter). This is basically to find if the brand is delivering according to planned expectations.

well positioned brand attracts as a consumer-magnet to gain more share of market. Brand position definition is a combination of the mind set, feelings, believes and the attitudes consumers have for a brand. To unlock new breakthrough sales opportunities through brand innovation will require detail understanding of what the brand promise stands for; the brand positioning, the USP and the target focus groups. Marketers use various methods to innovate and build their brands to capture, create and fulfill new consumer needs, above the competitors offer. Reason to buy one particular brand above another is associated with several rational and emotional factors, which are embraced with the brand values and the service offer. Therefore, it is essential to obtain full understanding for how the brand values can continually be developed stronger over time, aligned with the framework of what the “brand promise” stands for.