60-Minute Brand Strategist: The Essential Brand Book for Marketing Professionals

Chapter 03

Strategic Perspectives of Branding

“We have a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, working in similar jobs, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”

—Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

“We also have a surplus of similar brands, having similar attributes, with similar marketing messages and slogans, coming up with similar brand claims, with similar quality, selling at similar prices. Welcome to the surplus economy!”

—Idris Mootee

Brand Attention Deficit

The average consumer is exposed to as many as 500 to 2,000 branded messages per day. Multiple studies indicate that less than 10 percent of prime time ads have clear positioning. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of new packaged goods introduced globally increased by more than 20 percent, the largest increase in a decade. Most of these were “me-too” products destined to be lost in the crowd and to reduce some brands to a near-commodity status.

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets resulting in explosion in video consumption which is estimated to grow at a rate of 30 to 40 percent over the next 5 years. More screens in more places and more interactions between viewers and brands. Brand marketers understand the need for “emotional connection” and “story,” mining so-called trends ...