BrandByte #3 – Brand Management

Are you ACTIVE or PASSIVE in your brand management?

 

Brand Differentiation—It’s An Inside Job

3 Ways to Maximize Competitive Advantage!

By Suzanne Tulien, Principal and co-Founder of The Brand Ascension Group

Business innovation never ceases to amaze me! Every day I see ads that blow me away when it comes to new ideas and state-of-the-art features and benefits of existing products. The problem, however, with differentiating your brand through product features and benefits is that those are easily copied by competitors. Once it catches on, ‘poof!’ — no longer a differentiator.

Brands that are highly product based can’t help but differentiate through features. I remember my jaw dropping when I saw an ad for the newest Maybelline mascara equipped with a tiny battery that causes the wand to vibrate! It’s the first of its kind, vibrates 7,000x a minute, and has a battery life of up to 130 applications. I had to think, well, ‘how else could they innovate mascara?’