Years ago, I worked for Hills Bros coffee. We were the #3 brand having a tough time competing against the market leaders (Folgers and Maxwell House), struggling in many markets to keep our product in distribution. But we had one market, Chicago, where we were runaway market leaders with 4x the share of anyone else. In that market, nothing that Folgers or Maxwell House tried to do succeeded in dislodging us.
Two powerful forces are combining to push brands to catch up with Peter Drucker’s ideas about them serving a higher purpose.
Why has Tide been a top detergent brand for so long? Why is Heinz Ketchup, popular everywhere, still so particularly popular in Pittsburgh?
Today a brief brand architecture story to share. Back in the early 90s, not long after Nestlé had acquired the Carnation company it decided to start using the Nestlé brand as an endorsement on most of its products.
Want to raid a few brand loyalists from the competition? Here’s how. Focus on the similarities between your product and theirs. If you want to keep your fans loyal, focus on how you are different.
