Monday, September 17, 2012

Defining Brand Strength: Differentiation & Relevance (Smart Monday/Positioning)



Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Smart Monday and we are going to review an old Young & Rubicon model about brand equity, looking specifically at brand strength.

Y&R determined that there are two elements that make up brand strength, differentiation and relevance.

Differentiation means how different and distinctive your brand is to your customers or in the market place.  There is a clear difference or point of difference between your product and your competition.

Relevance is how meaningful that differentiation is to the customers.  Do they really embrace it?  Is there a mass market?  Or is it somewhat limited and not many people are actually seeking out your product because it isn’t relevant to them.

Y&R also determined a calculation for brand equity.  They placed a value on differentiation and they multiplied that by a value assigned to relevance, the higher the number the stronger the brand.  I don’t expect you to go through the same calculations to determine brand equity but what they did is important for you to think about with respect to your own brand and the strength of your brand

Consider Porsche for instance.  Porsche is a brand that is very distinctive.  It definitely is differentiated in the market place.  But how relevant is it?  How many people are actually out there seeking a Porsche?  Differentiation is high but it’s not quite as relevant so the brand strength in this case is not as high as another product, such as Disney for example.  Many people know the Disney brand.  It’s very unique but it is also relevant to them because they want to visit the theme park.

Why is this important?  If you want to strengthen your brand the first thing to focus on is differentiation.  If you are just like everybody else it’s going to be very hard to create a strong brand.  With respect to relevance, you don’t have to be all things to all people.  Not everyone is in your targeted market.  You want to be relevant, though, with respect to the individuals you believe should be seeking out your product.  If you are able to differentiate and become relevant to them, the strength of your brand will go up dramatically.

That concludes Smart Monday.  Join us tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

© 2012 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

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