Plotting your path to success

Using the Blueprint for Brand Growth to Guide Your Brand Strategy

Since the launch of The Blueprint for Brand Growth just a few, short months ago, the feedback we have received from around the globe has been incredible.  For many CMOs it has already become their indispensable, go-to resource to confirm whether their brands are on the right path to growth or whether they need to course-correct.  In essence, for many marketers, The Blueprint for Brand Growth has now been placed right at the heart of brand strategy development.

As you will see from The Blueprint for Brand Growth, the starting point for any CMO, when evaluating their brand strategy, is to fully understand their brand’s equity and specifically whether or not it is meaningfully different to more people.  The reason for inviting this quite confronting question is because we know from all the work that sits behind The Blueprint for Brand Growth, is that brands which are meaningfully different to more people have on average 9x more volume share, are 4x more likely to grow value share in the year ahead and can command 2x the price of brands lacking these qualities.   In short, being meaningfully different to more people helps brands drive penetration and improve consumers’ willingness to pay more.  It is the blueprint to achieve brand growth.  Having prompted such a profound question about the brand strategy – further, equally challenging questions, may follow.

Firstly, how do I make my brand more meaningful?

If the Blueprint for Brand Growth highlights this as an area of attention for my brand, is relevancy the problem?  Or perhaps, my brand is no longer connecting emotively or functionally as well as it used to. For years Coca-Cola ads were filled with images of overtly good-looking young people, that barely took a sip of the famous soda.  At some point, however, the world moved on and the ads had stopped connecting with their audience.  The Brand had started to lose its meaningfulness.   The aspirational lifestyle depictions had lost their lustre and consumers no longer felt culturally connected to the Brand.  Their affinity for it had waned.

Likewise, the extrinsic values of being a sparkling, refreshing beverage – which were core to meeting consumers’ needs – just weren’t being reflected in its advertising anymore.   Coca-Cola listened to consumer feedback and course-corrected with a more contemporary advertising platform – with images of more relatable younger people who were unashamedly, savouring the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola.  Needless to say, the hiatus the Brand had experienced was rectified and it returned to stronger growth with the brand today enjoying fifteenth spot in our BrandZ list of most valuable brands in the world.

Of course, there are other ways to bring meaning to a brand.   Being associated across more occasions makes brands more meaningful – their greater relevancy helps build stronger mental connections.  The Snickers brand strategy platform built on “You’re not you when you are hungry”, has helped it become more meaningful by owning ‘refuelling’ occasions between meals.  For other brands innovation has helped them meet more needs and for many more it has been about improving their user experiences.  Becoming more meaningful has many potential avenues.

But what if difference is the issue?

How can a CMO put distance between their brands and their competitors in the minds of consumers?  Difference can show up in many ways: through category leadership, the use of distinctive brand assets, having the perception of relatively superior functional benefits to competitors or through having emotional clarity.   Being seen as different not only helps make choosing a brand easier, it also helps it command more of a premium, and make it less vulnerable to churn.

Understanding the category you are in and the human truths that inform choices can not only help brands become more meaningful but also set them apart from their competitors.   For years Cadbury had worked with a brand platform built on the joy of chocolate.  While it gave the Brand meaning it also proved to be a universal truth for the category – all chocolate could bring joy.  It did not differentiate the Brand.  But by better understanding the emotive needs of the category, Cadbury found a richer, more differentiating territory – that of generosity.  And as a result – through consistent communication with well-known TVCs like ‘Mum’s Birthday’ and ‘Garage’ – the Brand has gone from strength to strength, with a +22% increase in value sales between 2017 and 2021.

So, it would seem that even the strongest brands need to take stock and review their brand strategy from time to time. Fortunately, The Blueprint for Brand Growth is fast proving an invaluable aid for CMOs to help them determine if their brands are meaningfully different to more people and what to do if they are not, as is our accompanying Brand Strategy Unpacked booklet, with its structured approach to tackling strategic brand issues and wonderful illustrative examples.  Please come and talk to us to learn more about either of these indispensable resources and to let us help you plot your path to success.