Three Essential Brand Building Ingredients

by BJ BuenoJul 22, 2010

Three Essential Brand Building IngredientsToday brands are faced with a new challenge, mainly that of clutter. In a cluttered marketplace of indistinguishable brands, developing a strong position in the heart of the customer is extremely challenging. Brands that don’t actively work to differentiate are generally defined and controlled by their competition.

In the world of Branding, you either grow or die—branding, category leadership, market share, relevance, there’s no in-between.

In most cases, the winner of this game for the customer’s heart takes all, leaving the rest of the competition struggling for minor market share. In order to develop a strong position in the marketplace, CMO’s have to understand three key ingredients for developing brand dominance:

  1. Relevance
  2. Growth Potential
  3. Category Leadership

Category Leadership: The Power of your Brand Position

by BJ BuenoMay 18, 2010

Southwest Airlines summarizes this idea best when their former leader, Herb Kelleher, said, “ I will tell you our strategic plan, its called doing something.” As crazy as this sounds, most companies don’t do anything to establish category leadership.

Most brands, by default, choose the tried-and-true path and take their place in the rankings by simply doing what they have always done. In order to develop brand leadership, you have to own your category. There is no way around it; there can’t be anyone else that serve your specific customers better than you do.

Great brands always stand alone.

Leading the pack is not easy, and it’s not for everyone. Creating market dominance means constant attention to the customer by taking meaningful action. Great brands are in a constant conversation with their customers, associates, and partners. At each point in the chain they strive to add value and stand apart from their competitors.

As one of my mentors would always say, Onward!