Asian brands have established themselves as strong global players - most notably in the consumer electronics and computing (think South Korean powerhouses Samsung and LG, as well as Sony) and automotive (think Toyota, Kia, Hyundai) sectors. Furthermore, Japan acts as an exception in itself - as a nation it has shown an ability to produce great brands, both in the two categories mentioned above (e.g. Canon, Sony, Honda, Nintendo), but also in categories where other Asian nations have often struggled (e.g. Uniqlo for fast fashion, Asics for shoes and Asahi for beer).

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Asian brands
Asian brands have established themselves as strong global players - most notably in the consumer electronics
and computing (think South Korean powerhouses Samsung and LG, as well as Sony) and automotive (think
Toyota, Kia, Hyundai) sectors.
Furthermore, Japan acts as an exception in itself - as a nation it has shown an ability to produce great brands,
both in the two categories mentioned above (e.g. Canon, Sony, Honda, Nintendo), but also in categories where
other Asian nations have often struggled (e.g. Uniqlo for fast fashion, Asics for shoes and Asahi for beer).
To become a global brand, a need to understand the fundamentals of branding is a given; beyond that, we
believe Asian companies need to identify how they can leverage what is truly unique about them - which in
many cases will be driven by the fact they are Asian, and not Western - and bring that to the global market in a
compelling way, which differentiates itself from its Western competitors. The 'glass half full' view is that as
there is a lack of compelling global brands with positionings that reflect Asia's rich culture and heritage, there is
an opportunity to 'own' that space in any number of categories.
Some examples of brands who have effectively leveraged their Asian heritage include Japanese fashion retailer
Uniqlo, which has embraced its Japanese origins in a distinctly modern way, and Banyan Tree Hotels and
Resorts, which has used Asian themes to distinguish itself from the often generic branding evident in most
global hotel brands.
So embracing Asian heritage - and not trying to be like existing powerful Western brands - we think is a key for
Asian brands looking to succeed globally.
A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brand’s current position in an industry compared to its competitors
and the examination of its effectiveness. When it comes to brand auditing, five questions should be carefully
examined and assessed. These five questions are how well the business’ current brand strategy is working,
what are the company’s established resource strengths and weaknesses, what are its external opportunities and
threats, how competitive are the business’ prices and costs, how strong is the business’ competitive position in
comparison to its competitors, and what strategic issues are facing the business.
Generally, when a business is conducting a brand audit, the main goal is to uncover business’ resource
strengths, deficiencies, best market opportunities, outside threats, future profitability, and its competitive
standing in comparison to existing competitors. A brand audit establishes the strategic elements needed to
improve brand position and competitive capabilities within the industry. Once a brand is audited, any business
that ends up with a strong financial performance and market position is more likely than not to have a properly
conceived and effectively executed brand strategy.
A brand audit examines whether a business’ share of the market is increasing, decreasing, or stable. It
determines if the company’s margin of profit is improving, decreasing, and how much it is in comparison to the
profit margin of established competitors. Additionally, a brand audit investigates trends in a business’ net
profits, the return on existing investments, and its established economic value. It determines whether or not the
business’ entire financial strength and credit rating is improving or getting worse. This kind of audit also
assesses a business’ image and reputation with its customers. Furthermore, a brand audit seeks to determine
whether or not a business is perceived as an industry leader in technology, offering product or service
innovations, along with exceptional customer service, among other relevant issues that customers use to decide
on a brand of preference.
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A brand audit usually focuses on a business’ strengths and resource capabilities because these are the elements
that enhance its competitiveness. A business’ competitive strengths can exist in several forms. Some of these
forms include skilled or pertinent expertise, valuable physical assets, valuable human assets, valuable
organizational assets, valuable intangible assets, competitive capabilities, achievements and attributes that
position the business into a competitive advantage, and alliances or cooperative ventures.
The basic concept of a brand audit is to determine whether a business’ resource strengths are competitive assets
or competitive liabilities. This type of audit seeks to ensure that a business maintains a distinctive competence
that allows it to build and reinforce its competitive advantage. What’s more, a successful brand auditseeks to
establish what a business capitalizes on best, its level of expertise, resource strengths, and strongest competitive
capabilities, while aiming to identify a business’ position and future performance.
Brand Revitilisation/Relaunch
:: WHAT IS REBRANDING & BRAND RELAUNCHING ?
Rebranding and relaunching can take many guises from the complete wholesale change of a company or
product, inside and out, including name, culture, values, behaviours, tone, visual collateral and all that
entails with no connections to the legacy entity, to something less dramatic and of a more evolutionary
nature.
In each instance though, the change to whatever degree, affects a change in the minds of the target
market in terms of their perceptions of the brand. That change is a process of giving a company, product
or service a new image in order to make it more successful.
Positioned and developed correctly brands offer a means of generating sustained growth, enabling companies
to charge a premium. Equally they also assist a company to resist or bounce back from competitor attack.
Brands are key to a company's long-term survival and market leadership. Accountants and auditors the
world over calculate the value of brands when determining book values on the company balance sheets. In the
case of strong brands, the brand can be 70% - 90% of the stock market value (intangible assets).
Rebranding is a complex process and should not be engaged lightly. Handled badly it can be damaging to
business. Equally in the words of a Chinese proverb "if you do not plan for the future, you will get the one that
shows up" and successful rebranding, relaunching and revitalisation adds significantly to a companys long
term success.
Some of the reasons for rebranding, relaunching and revitalising a brand include the following:
1. Relevance:
Brands need to stay relevant to their target market, to keep up with the times and keep pace with changing
customer needs (e.g. services, accessibility, convenience, choice, changing trends, technology). A brand that
has become old-fashioned in the eyes of its audience is in danger of stagnation if not already in a state of
erosion and loss of market share.
2. Competition:
In a fast moving environment with aggressive competition, rebranding may be required to change the offering
to the market in order to create a more compelling reason to buy in the minds of the target
audience. Rebranding can be used as a means of blocking or outmanoeuvring competitors or a way of
handling increased price competitiveness.
3. Globalisation:
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Sometimes rebranding is required because of globalisation where the same product sold across multiple markets
is inconsistent or different e.g. Marathon's change to Snickers, Opal Fruits change to Starburst,
4. Mergers & Acquisitions:
When two entities combine there are typically two unique audiences left to communicate with. Sometimes this
can require a rebrand or relaunch in a way that will appeal to both. In other cases one of the brands may be more
dominant requiring more of a revitalisation or refresh with it becoming the sole dominant player.
5. Innovation:
Technology is constantly evolving and the rate of change often exponential. If a brand is technology related e.g.
internet, software, hardware and the product offering constantly innovating then a rebrand frequently follows
the natural and fast rate of change.Rebranding or revitalisation becomes an outward expression of the
companies evolution and ensures the brand's change hungry customers keep coming back to see "what's new".
6. Repositioning:
Taking a brand to a new position is an involved process e.g. from an economy price fighter to premium
position, and invariably requires a rebrand to signal a change in direction, focus, attitude or strategy to its target
market. Also again rebranding used as a means of blocking or outmanoeuvring competitors or a way of
handling increased price competitiveness.
7. Rationalisation:
Rebranding can be used to decrease business development and operational costs, or a way of countering
declining profitability or consumer confidence. It can also be used where there are complex and
sometimes confusing mixes of product portfolios which frequently undermine the brands impact, (along with
considerable advertising, branding clutter and media proliferation) all of which causes brand
incongruence and audience fragmentation and consequently badly needs consolidation through rebranding
to achieve brand impact and strong growth again.
8. Outgrowth:
When small companies grow into bigger entities they and/or their products frequently require a rebrand or
revitalisation to meet the needs of the bigger business. Typically smaller companies start with more modest
brand offering, due to budget restrictions, which are inadequate to meet the needs of a bigger more sophisticated
business and a rebrand is required.
9. Legal Requirements:
Occasionally legal issues may arise that require a company to make changes to their branding such
as copyright issues or bankruptcy e.g. similarities between naming and designs. For example The Jelly Bean
Factory became The Jelly Bean Planet in Ireland to ensure differentiation from the USA brand Jelly Belly.
10. Morale & Reputation:
If a company brand has demoralised employees or confused customers then a rebrand may required.
A thorough rebrand process will work to unearth the issues that need addressing and could be solved through
key changes, including a completely new look and feel to the organisation. A rebrand in this instance can
improve a brand's competitiveness by creating a common sense of purpose and unified identity, building staff
morale and pride, as well as a way of attracting new customers, enhancing relationships with existing customers
and attracting the best talent to the business.
Rebranding can be categorised to include one or a combination of all the items listed:
a) new brand name
b) brand identity (brand logo), trademark, tagline or slogans
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c) graphics, brand imagery, online presence i.e. website, Facebook pages etc.
d) company or product livery, uniforms, stationery, digital presentations
e) packaging
f) product displays, exhibition stands, signage & wayfinding systems
g) exterior and interior design
h) advertising, on and offline
i) movies, video and show reels
j) new product launches, differentiations, extensions or enhancements
k) a change in brand profile, values, mission, goals, story, message, promise, offerings, personality, emotion,
behaviours, tone of voice, culture, brand experience, customer care
l) potential change in target market, brand positioning, brand architecture
...and more
REASONS NOT TO REBRAND
While the debate, in term of pros and cons, on whether to rebrand or not can be as complex as the process itself,
the following reasons not to are largely worth reflection too.
1. A young brand:
If a brand has only been on the market a short time e.g. 3 years, bearing in mind time can be measured
differently depending on your market/industry, then it's probably premature to rebrand. It takes time to build a
brand and evolve it into something authentic and meaningful to its target audience. Rebranding to "sell" more in
such instances might be better served by a different approach to marketing or a new campaign unless the
existing brand solution is very flawed.
2. Change for the sake of change:
It's not a good idea to rebrand just because "you want to" or because somebody wants to stake their next career
move on a rebrand. If there is no compelling commercial reason e.g. new innovation, behaviours, culture and all
the other reasons mentioned above, then the target audience will be left with an empty experience. On top of
that you've wasted a lot of money !
:: TOP REBRANDING MISTAKES TO AVOID
1. Do not think branding or a rebrand for that matter is just the logo, stationery or corporate colours in
isolation.
Effective branding encompasses both tangible and intangible elements, a large part of what have been listed
previously e.g. target audience, customer experience and perception, product quality, look, feel, online and
offline environments, customer facing staff, the tone of all communications both visual, auditory and written
etc.
2. Don't cling to the old unless it has key brand provenance that is still relevant to the current target
market.
Powerful rebranding means being connected to what really matters to your bulls eye customer. Don't assume
because it worked in the past it's still relevant now. Research, review and analyse changes in your target market
when investigating new opportunities for repositioning, expansion or revitalisation.
3. Don't overlook existing brand equity and goodwill.
Ignoring brand equity when rebranding can alienate existing customers and potentially damage a brand's
perception. A massive overhaul may be excessive when a smaller evolution would be more appropriate. Ensure
you are fully up-to-date on the mindset and needs of your target market before engaging in the process.
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4. Don't forget to step into your customer's shoes.
Hire a secret shopper with a profile that matches your target market and have them engage with your brand at
all relevant touch points e.g. ring your receptionist with an enquiry, navigate your website, buy your products,
make a customer complaint to see how its handled or not as the case may be. Have them record their
experiences in detail and report back. Perceptions internally are often a mismatch to reality on the ground. It can
be very revealing and is an essential aspect of your rebrand research and analysis.
5. Don't rebrand without research.
How much do you know about your current and prospective customers (needs, wants, loves, hates, behaviours
etc.). What is their compelling reason to buy ? They should be front of mind when creating new solutions and
revitalising old ones too. They are your ultimate litmus test.
6. Don't treat your rebrand superficially.
A rebrand must be authentic and believable throughout, internally and externally. It must be a liveable story that
meets and exceeds customer perceptions and experiences. It must hold credibility and deliver down to the last
detail both amongst your day-to-day staff and target audience or it's largely tokenism, a waste of time and
money.
7. Don't rebrand without a well thought out plan.
Rebranding requires clearly defined briefs to keep everyone on track as the project evolves. Your plan should
include every aspect of the rebrand e.g. situation analysis, objectives, target markets, budget, resources, time
frames, appointed project leader, known parameters, approval structures, stakeholders and metrics for assessing
results.
8. Don't overlook the basics.
Having a stunning website, market materials, physical environment or amazing product solution is wasted if the
fundamentals of your customer services sucks. Equally if your brand purchasing or processing experience falls
short, the brand becomes undermined. Keep all your customer touch points and basic interactions in mind as
much as the more glamorous aspects when rebranding. Review, fine tune and improve and don't underestimate
the ordinary essentials, they are just as important.
9. Don't overlook feedback from customer facing staff.
The staff who interact with your customers on a daily basis can yield valuable information and insights into
your target market. This is where customers are typically at their most candid and the information garnered
from the real world is just as valuable if not more in some cases, then other forms of research.
10. Don't think you're too small to rebrand.
Every brand needs revitalising to stay relevant as markets evolve whether the brand is a global multinational or
smaller national brand, even non-profits and artisan brands are not immune. Like larger brands, smaller brands
have target markets, positions etc. that need to be kept relevant and enhanced. They too have to move with the
changes of their market and customer preferences or disappear into the mists of time.
Brand valuation is the job of estimating the total financial value of the brand. Like the valuation of any
product, of self review, or conflicts of interest if those that value the brand also were involved in its
creation.[1] The ISO 10668 standard sets out the appropriate process of valuing brands and sets out six key
requirements, transparency, validity, reliability, sufficiency, objectivity and financial, behavioural and legal
parameters. Brand valuation is distinguished from brand equity.
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The Cost Approach
The cost approach measures the value of a brand as the cost invested in its creation and development. The idea
being that an investor would not pay more for a brand than it would cost to recreate or replace it. However,
since this approach is based on retrospective data it does not consider a company's future earnings.
The Market Approach
The brand is valued based on what others in the market have paid for similar assets. With so few brands being
bought and sold, using this method may be as difficult as finding a recent sale of another brand with a similar
awareness, strength, or economic and legal situation against which to benchmark.
The Income Approach
This approach measures the value by reference to the present value of the economic benefits received over the
rest of the useful life of the brand. There are 6 recognised methods of the income approach.
1. Price premium method - estimates the value of a brand by the price premium it generates when
compared to a similar but unbranded product or service. This must take into account the volume
premium method.
2. Volume premium method - estimates the value of a brand by the volume premium it generates when
compared to a similar but unbranded product or service. This must take into account the price premium
method.
3. Income split method - this values the brand as the present value portion of the economic profit
attributable to the brand over the rest of its useful life. This has problems in that profits can sometimes
be negative, leading to unrealistic brand value, and also that profits can be manipulated so may
misrepresent brand value. This method uses qualitative measures to decide the portion of economic
profits to be accredited to the brand.
4. Multi-period excess earnings method - this method requires a valuation of each group of intangible
assets to calculate the cost of capital of each. The returns for each of these are deducted from the present
value of future cash flows and when all other assets have been accounted for, the remaining is used as
the value of the brand.
5. Incremental cash flow method - Identifies the extra cash flow in a branded business when compared to
an unbranded, and comparable, business. However it is rare to find conditions for this method to be
used since finding similar unbranded companies can be difficult.
6. Royalty relief method - Assume theoretically a company does not own the brand it operates under, but
instead licenses the use from another. The royalty relief method uses available data of similar
arrangements in the industry and assigns the value of the brand as the present value of future royalty
payments.
Uses of brand valuation
value reporting
licensing
dispute resolution
legal transaction
accounting
strategic planning
management information
taxation planning and compliance
liquidation
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litigation support
Challenger brand
Characteristics of challenger brands
Apple / Virgin / Hertz / Swatch / Body Shop etc
Ambitions that outstrip their available resources: Always looking for ways to do more with less
Are highly creative and nimble. Often challenge the establishment by coming up with innovative
products and services - and ways to market them
Have a clear sense of themselves and intensely and consistently project their point of view in everything
they do
Stand out from the competition by their intensity and confidence in themselves
Staying at number one (eg: local marketplace) means thinking and behaving like number two.
Pepsi v Coke. Virgin Atlantic v British Airways. Avis v Hertz. Think of the term challenger brand and these are
just some of the 'challenges' that come to mind. Historically, challenger brands are the underdogs, taking on
their category leaders in the strive for market dominance. Some have even specifically traded on this secondbest identity; Avis' 'We Try Harder' campaign was built around its status as the second-largest car rental
company after Hertz.
Brand design is key to any identity as a challenger, as it “needs to show that the challenger brand represents the
living embodiment of change,” explains Yael Alaton, strategy director at Pearlfisher. “The design needs to
provoke, seduce and transform. Simplicity is key.”
“Challenger brands bring about change and progress. They create the new and define the way forward.
Challenger brands are about provocation, seduction and transforming a category.”
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Branding or Brand is considered important not only for companies but they carry equal importance for
customers or consumers also. From consumer or customer point of view, brand becomes important for various
reason let us explore some of them. Brand for a customer will indicate commitment towards quality from sellers
there by reducing time spent in coming to a purchase decision. Brand for companies will indicate a sort of
benchmark in quality as well as customer expectation, a point of differentiation from competitors and a steady
stream of profit.
Normally we associate branding from point of view common mass; and products or service displayed in malls
and supermarket. However there exists another market where branding is equally important and that is business
to business market. This is referred as corporate branding, which is again a challenge as decision making
process for purchase order is way different compare to individual. Here survival of organization as well as
individual will be at stake. The key lies in developing a brand for corporation where in which other business can
be confident of.
Modern globalized, technology driven world has thrown new challenges to branding. Customers/consumers
have more access to information than ever before. Internet has become a strong tool through which product
information proliferate raising expectation bar for companies. Companies have responded to this challenge by
improvising in the way they run their marketing campaigns, by exploring new avenues to showcase their
products. Like for example; sponsorship of events and teams or association with social cause.
In a given market innumerable products and services are offered by different companies. The identity developed
for this product and services over a period of time, through marketing strategies, sturdy performance etc is
referred to as brand. A stage is reached where brand become synonymous with product e.g. - coffee-Starbucks,
donut-Dunkin Donuts, online retail-Ebay etc. This process is called strategic brand management.
Sustainability brand
Sustainability brands are products and services that are branded to signify a special added value in terms of
environmental and social benefits to the customer and thus enable the differentiation from
competitors.[1][2] Sustainability brands differentiate them self from Green brands by their capability of resistance
to the accusation of green washing
Sustainability branding is the process of creating and maintaining an identity of a specific product, service, or
business that reflects special added value in terms of environmental and social benefits.[1] A brand is only
perceived as being sustainable if it can credibly convey sustainability benefits which are noticeable by and
relevant to the consumer.[2]
Opposed to the term green brands which mainly focuses on environmentally sound business practices,
sustainability brands additionally acknowledge the social dimension of providing products and services. This
entails, among others, health and safety issues resulting from direct or indirect product use (consumption level)
as well as the conditions under which a particular product is produced (production level). The physical
protection and well-being of people at work (i.e. employees as well as workers within the supply chains) are
important indicators of sustainability brands and sustainability marketing in general which adheres to the triple
bottom line of ecological (environmental), social (equity), and financial (economic) sustainability.[3][1]
A brand is able to evoke positive or negative feelings, especially in the context of sensitive social and ecological
issues. The more positive the perceptions and feelings are towards a brand, the higher will be the likelihood of
identification and loyalty amongst consumers. It is therefore crucial in sustainability marketing to build up
strong brands. In doing so, companies face far-reaching decisions in the areas of brand positioning (1),
sustainability brand name selection (2), and sustainability brand development (3), in order to create and build
sustainability brands that consumers associate with social and environmental added value.[1]
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Sustainability brands vs. Sustainable Brands
Since the adjective “sustainable” might convey the notion of brands that have long-lasting success, implicating
durable competitive advantage without any particular reference to a sustainability agenda, the term
“sustainability brand” should be used to prevent ambiguity. Albeit subtle difference, the latter explicitly
emphasizes the notion of brands which have built their brand image upon sustainable business practices that
consumers value. Sustainability brands are commonly referred to in the field of sustainability marketing.[4]
Sustainability brand positioning and the 8 C's
Sustainability Brand Positioning and positioning in general is part of the brand identity and value
proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience[5] and can be described as an iterative
process, consisting of deliberate and proactive actions aimed at the definition of distinct consumer
perceptions.[6] Sustainable brand positioning is the brand positioning of Sustainable products and services.
Sustainable products and services should offer an improved social and ecological performance during the whole
product lifecycle and at the same time they have to satisfy consumer needs and wants. Many of the first
generation sustainability brands failed in the market because companies overemphasized the positive socioecological product attributes, while they neglected to focus on other product attributes such as performance,
functionality or design, too. As a result, many products could not compete against conventional products. [1]
To build up and position strong sustainability brands, there are some guidelines to follow. Marc
Stoiber [7] summed them up in the The five Cs of Sustainability Branding:[8] Consumer Facing, Competitive,
Core, Conversational and credible. Perrine Bouhana added to that concept “a sixth C”: Consistency. Martin
Belz complemented and revised this concept to “8 C’s” of sustainability branding and describes them as
followed:[9]
Core
Sustainability should be tied up to the key problems and the core business through assessing the socioecological impacts of products along the entire life-cycle of the products and finding out the socio-ecological
“hot-spots” of the product-life-cycle.
Co-operative
The solutions to the main socio-ecological problems associated with products along the entire life cycle require
- both in the process of innovating and marketing sustainable products and services - co-operations with
suppliers, retailers, consumers, scientists, and other non-market actors (e.g. NGO’s).
Credible
Fundamentals of credibility are first the solving of key socio-ecological problems associated with companies’
products and second tying sustainability to the core business. Co-operations with trustworthy partners and the
use of independent, third-party labels (e.g. labels like Bio or MSC) such as a high level of transparency (e.g.
through an online tracking system, which enables consumers to see the world of behind the product) can
additionally increase the credibility of sustainability brands.
Consumer Benefits
Socio-ecological characteristics or attributes of products usually just play an auxiliary role (no core benefits).
To broaden the appeal of sustainability brands, the companies should emphasize the inherent consumer benefits
of socio-ecological attributes, including efficiency and cost effectiveness, health and safety, symbolism and
status. Further they should align socio-ecological attributes with benefits such as functionality, design, and
durability to create “motive alliances”.
Conversational
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Sustainability branding is more effective as a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way announcement.
Inviting consumers to enter into dialogues about the sustainability process strengthens the brand-consumer
relationship.
Consistency
If sustainability is key to brand positioning, this requires a kind of integrated approach to sustainability
communication: it is important to communicate in a consistent way, including e.g. advertising, personal selling
or online communication. In addition to that, the sustainability product brand has to be consistent with the
overall environmental and social performance of the company.
Commitment
Sustainability branding not only requires the commitment of the PR department and the sustainability officers
but also requires the commitment of top management and marketing decision makers.
Continuity
Sustainability must reflect the core values of the brand and contribute to delivering the brand promise over the
long-term. This means that a brand cannot change its sustainability focus too often, or engage in too many nonrelated areas.
Sustainability brand name selection
In the course of choosing the right name, Sustainability brands must first –just like brand names in the
conventional sense- follow well-established rules. In general, a good brand name should consider three
areas:[10] memorability (distinctive short name, evoking emotions…), strategic fit (they should relate to the
actual product; ability to expand to other brands) and legal (legal protection under trade mark law etc.) [11]
Sustainability Brands, however, go one step further and incorporate something that conveys the notion of social
and/or ecological awareness.
A popular example is “Better Place”, a global provider of electric vehicle networks and services that works in a
joint venture with Renault Nissan Alliance Motor Company to promote the use of electric cars.[12] The founder,
Shai Agassi, was intrigued by a question posed at the World Economic Forum in 2005 "How do you make the
world a better place by 2020?". [13] Thus the name Better Place. It is not related to the product (electric vehicle)
but to much wider social and ecological issues (depletion of natural resources, CO2 emissions…), which the
company addresses or rather offers the solution for.
Sustainability brand names can be part of a new product launch, an extension to an existing (conventional)
brand or be so new to the market that they create a product category themselves. Each of these approaches has
specific strategic implications.
Enter Established Market
Entering a saturated market such as the one for conventional household detergents with a sustainability brand
might prove extremely difficult. However, there are companies that have successfully entered the market and
positioned their brand as sustainability leaders. Seventh Generation, for instance, is the US market leader in four
product categories (Household, Laundry, Personal and Baby Care) with products that –in the words of the
company- “protect human health and the environment.” [14]
Brand Extension / Aligning Existing Brand
Established brands can leverage their existing brand recognition to extend their name to new products, which
are then marketed as socially and ecologically friendly. Tide, a popular detergent brand in the US, expanded its
brand to meet the demands of the ecological conscious consumer by launching Tide Cold Water Detergent in
2005. The product requires only cold water and thus saves energy. In 2010, it was given the Green GH seal,
which is only awarded after a “cradle to grave” examination of the product. [15]
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Creating entirely new Product Categories
Sustainability brand names can also succeed if they achieve to create a product category for themselves where
there is virtually no competition yet. When the car-sharing concept was fairly new, companies such as Mobility
CarSharing in Switzerland did neither compete with car companies nor public transportation providers.[1]
[edit]Sustainability brand development
Sustainability brand development
Sustainability brands are subject to constant change. A sustainability brand that is well established on the
market, can be further developed into different directions. According to Belz and Peattie [1] four main options
for development are possible:
Line extension occurs when a company adds new products of the same product category under the same
sustainability brand name.
Sustainability brand extension occurs when a company introduces products of a different product category but
under the same sustainability brand name.
Multi-sustainability brands occur when a company manages two or more different sustainability brands but in
the same product category.
New sustainability brands occur when a company creates an entire new brand name when they access a new
product category.
To create a sustainability brand it is furthermore important to adopt the right channels for marketing according
to Lauterborns five Cs. Advertising in this case can help to create awareness of the brand and thus form the new
brand experience. [1] [16] Furthermore it is obligatory for Sustainability brands to obtain one ore more ecolabels,
leading to a higher influence on consumer behaviour and the perception of the brand
Decline of brands
Since 1991, the number of brands on US grocery store shelves has tripled. Last year, the US Patent and
Trademark Office issued an incredible 140,000 trademarks - 100,000 more than in 1983. The average American
sees 60 percent more ad messages per day than when the first President Bush left office.
Of all the things that your company owns, brands are far and away the most important and the toughest.
Founders die. Factories burn down. Machinery wears out. Inventories get depleted. Technology becomes
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obsolete. Brand loyalty is the only sound foundation on which business leaders can build enduring, profitable
growth
CET MBA
Module 5
Prepared by Belli P K