Our gut instinct as marketers is to go with what is working, because everything in the corporate rewards system is geared towards that: lack of risk appetite; the quest for short term results; even performance incentives. The irony for brands of course is that the more you embrace what works for others, the less likely those ideas are going to work for you.
And after that gentle title, Simon Silvester launches into:
An increasing number of brand managers indicate that their brands operate in commodity categories. The Blake Project first began focusing on this area when we conducted a branding seminar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and was asked by several conference attendees who worked for different energy companies to help them think through how to differentiate their brands so that they could command a price premium.
Brand trust resides in different places in different markets. The location and nature of that trust should directly influence how you compete.
Short answer – yes it is, but not in the way it was.
