How Brands Grow at Every Level

This international major fruit juice brand went to work on their packaging in 2009. The brand has been around since 1947 and they were ready for something new. The orange on the box with the red/white straw was starting to get a tad corny anyway, so it was scrapped by the product developer. A new packaging was introduced (see image).

Consistent Use of Brand Assets

There was a balanced story to go with it: every detail had been thought about and had meaning. And yet they had to reverse this expensive operation within a month. They had not sufficiently realized the importance of consistency when using brand assets. People no longer saw/recognized "their" suit and now often grabbed wrong. So Tropicana actually threw away something to which it owed its very success.

We are talking about a mistake made quickly. Especially in a world where brand and marketing managers succeed each other every three years. And in a world where it is often about value, purpose and why. By the way, there is nothing wrong with that in itself: brand building is very important. But mainly as a basis for consistency. There is more to brand growth. And the How Brands Grow books provide concrete tools for that. For brand, marketing, product, category and media managers. At both strategic and operational level.

Central to this, at every level, are the Dinstinctive Brand Assets (DBAs) and Category Entry Points (CEPs). You could think of these as phenomena similar to the 4 Ps. A must for anyone involved in marketing and brand growth.

Some simplified examples to make it understandable so you can imagine something concrete.

Marketing Manager: Some companies have multiple brands/products in their portfolio. How do you position them in relation to each other? We are used to looking at brand values and target groups. You now see at Mars that Snickers and Twix are positioned primarily based on CEPs: Snickers (for everyone) at times when you are no longer yourself and could use some energy and Twix for with coffee. Coca Cola went back on the idea that its Coke variants were for different target groups, which in reality turned out to be only partly so. Each Coke variant is for everyone, but at different times, with different motivations. For its part, FrieslandCampina now distinguishes Vifit and Optimel much more emphatically from each other, based on CEPs. Vifit is positioned around sports.

Product manager: Talking about sports moments: Peijnenburg once started with small packs, because then people could easily carry cookies with them. In doing so, it expanded its market. Another example, in terms of DBAs, is Perry. Perry sells a lot online and has its color red as a brand asset very emphatically reflected in the outer packaging.

Brand manager: For brand managers: be careful with your brand assets and take them seriously (see Tropicana example). If necessary, bring in a strong old DBA, like OHRA does now with its purple crocodile and Duracell with its rabbit. And do not spend tons on advertising for your competitor, but -as research has shown for years- quickly show in a commercial who the sender is. Marktplaats emphatically claims the garden (CEP) as a hook to its brand in May and June. Verkade chooses to build a memory structure around watching a series on your laptop.

Category manager: If Twix and coffee is built as a memory structure, that also has implications for what you do on the store floor. Are you next to the coffee? Or for distribution policy at all: Vifit (see example above) has a presence in cycling and running stores.

Media manager: Domino's grew fast with a sophisticated media strategy. For example, with a local bus shelter campaign, they targeted physical places like the park, where you don't want to leave around six but still need to eat. So Quooker found out that its product was used for sterilizing pacifiers, among other things. So it made sure it was present on Ouders van Nu and in the Prenatal.

In short, examples abound that show how to successfully apply How Brands Grow, from strategic to operational and from left to right. Above all, be inspired, as many brands already are, by what you can learn from customers. And with good analysis, avoid the mistakes Tropicana made.

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