Strategic Brand Management

The financial case for brand strategy: Why CFOs should care. Branding isn’t just about looking good.* It drives real financial impact (* if done strategically) Yet, many companies still see it as a cost rather than an asset that increases enterprise value, reduces waste, and boosts profitability. Here’s what most businesses get wrong: - They see branding as expense, not an investment. - They focus on short-term lead generation over long-term equity. - They underestimate how much a strong brand lowers acquisition costs, improves pricing, reduces churn and attracts talent. Here’s how: 01 - Brand Strategy Increases Market Value: Brands are intangible, but they drive real financial value. Today, 80–85% of the S&P 500’s market value comes from intangibles like brand equity. Corporate reputation alone is worth $16 trillion globally. Companies with strong brands deliver 2× higher shareholder returns over 20 years than the MSCI World Index. Why? A strong brand builds trust, reduces risk, and increases pricing, partnerships, and M&A leverage. 02 - A Strong Brand Lowers Marketing Costs: Weak brands must pay to be noticed, they have to keep buying attention…spending millions on ads and lead gen. Strong brands generate attention. Tesla, for example, spends $0 on traditional ads, while competitors spend $495 per vehicle sold. Tesla’s brand, combined with a touch of Elon, drives WOM, earned media, and loyalty...saving hundreds of millions in marketing costs. (And yes, I know it works both ways, for better or worse) 03 - Branding Improves Profit Margins & Pricing Power: A strong brand lets you charge premium prices and avoid price wars. Apple sells iPhones at 40%+ gross margins, while competitors struggle, even with similar hardware. Why? Customers aren’t just buying a product, they’re buying into a brand. Data shows: - Consumers pay 11% more for trusted brands. - Brand-loyal customers pay 38% more, even price-sensitive ones pay 14% more. - Without strong branding, companies must compete on price alone. 04 - Strong Brands Retain Customers Longer: Retention is one of the biggest profitability drivers. It costs 5× more to acquire a new customer than to retain one. A 5% increase in retention boosts profits by 25–95%. Brand loyalty reduces churn, increases lifetime value, and creates repeat buyers without ads spend. 05 - Resilient Brands Outperform in Crises: In downturns, weak brands suffer revenue losses and resort to discounting. Strong brands hold their value & recover faster. During 2020, while most businesses struggled, the top 100 most valuable brands grew by +5.9%. A well-built brand acts as financial insulation, stabilising revenue. The Hard Truth: A strong brand isn’t a luxury, it’s a financial strategy. If your CFO still sees branding as a cost center, send them this. Sources: McKinsey, Interbrand, BrandZ, Bain & Company, Nielsen, Kantar, Invesp, Unilever, Tesla, industry reports on brand valuation, CAC, and shareholder returns.

The Chobani Rebrand - By Leland Maschmeyer and Team: When Bold Revolution Creates Category Leadership Walking through supermarket aisles, I'm often drawn to brands that dare to break category conventions. As a design director at Ginger Storm, the Chobani rebrand stands out as a masterclass in revolutionary design thinking that transformed a category leader from forgettable to unforgettable. Why the Rebrand? The catalyst was a strategic necessity: By 2017, Chobani found itself in a market saturated with lookalikes. Competitors had adopted similar visual language—stark white backgrounds, hyper-realistic fruit photography, and clinical sans-serif typography. What was once distinctive had become a category convention. Rather than accept visual irrelevance, Chobani seized the opportunity to reclaim its distinctiveness and reposition itself as a wellness-focused food company beyond just yoghurt. Design Change What fascinates me about this rebrand is its courage to completely reimagine the brand's visual expression. The logo transformation introduced a custom Chobani Serif typeface with softer, rounded edges that beautifully evoke the creamy texture of yoghurt itself. The shift from clinical bright white to a warmer off-white backdrop immediately distinguishes the brand on shelf. I'm particularly impressed by the bold move away from glossy finishes to premium matte textures—not just visually pleasing but enhancing the tactile experience. The replacement of hyper-realistic fruit photography with hand-painted watercolour illustrations inspired by 19th-century folk art creates a human touch that feels refreshingly authentic in a category dominated by perfect imagery. Strong Revolution This rebrand represents nothing short of a complete revolution in packaging design—and for all the right reasons. The original packaging lacked any meaningful identity beyond the name itself, making a revolutionary approach not just justified but necessary. What makes this approach so brilliant is how it doesn't merely differentiate—it establishes a new visual territory that competitors cannot easily follow without appearing derivative. The result is significantly better on every level: more strategic, more personality-driven, and perfectly aligned with the target audience while maintaining name recognition where it matters. The Results The impact speaks volumes: a 12% sales increase between 2019-2020 while the overall yogurt category declined by 4.4%. Chobani maintained its position as America's #1 yoghurt brand, overtaking Yoplait. The rebrand didn't just refresh aesthetics—it reinforced market leadership. Chobani proves that when the original lacks meaningful identity, a bold revolution isn't just an option—it's a strategic imperative. Sometimes the bravest decision is to completely reimagine your visual language rather than merely refining what never truly worked in the first place.

Dominance vs. Diversification: How are global beverage giants playing their game? (Assortment is the key. How about brand portfolio?) The Coca-Cola Company bets big on core dominance, with $33.5B anchored in its flagship brand alone. PepsiCo spreads its portfolio across multiple categories, showing up 3 times in the global top 9 with Pepsi ($18.3B), Gatorade ($4.9B), and Lipton ($3B). In a fast-evolving beverage landscape, does category diversification offer better long-term resilience than single-brand dominance? The portfolio playbook matters more than ever. Should we go for risk mitigation or market dominance? That's a delicate one, I admit. However, from my perspective, Coca-Cola's approach creates vulnerability to category disruption, but it also offers unmatched efficiency in marketing spend and supply chain optimization. Of course, when you're Coke, you can drive billions in incremental revenue with a single campaign. On the other hand, PepsiCo's model provides better insulation against health trends, demographic shifts, and evolving consumer preferences toward functional benefits. I really like the innovation velocity of PEP. The diversified approach typically enables faster adaptation to emerging consumer needs. PepsiCo's presence across multiple categories allows them to capture trends in wellness, energy, and premiumization more rapidly than a focused competitor. The choice between these models should align with the company's core capabilities and market realities. If you have an iconic brand with deep emotional resonance, the focused approach can generate superior returns. However, in today's rapidly evolving consumer landscape, the diversified model may offer better long-term sustainability. ++ Key Success Factors for Both Models ++ 1️⃣ If I were going for dominance strategies, I would recommend; - Build your brand and a more emotional connection relentlessly - Table stakes for profitability are your supply chain excellence and cost leadership - It will sound cheesy, I know, but still, global consistency with local relevance - Never let your guard down, go for aggressive market share defense 2️⃣ For diversification strategies, I would go for; - Advance your cross-category consumer insights and trend anticipation - Not new, but one of the most powerful, shared distribution and retail relationship leverage - Advanced data analytics and powerful modeling come into play for portfolio orchestration to avoid cannibalization - And my favorite, capability building across different consumer occasions will connect you with consumers for higher LTV and a better experience #CPG #FMCG #Data #AI Mert Damlapinar Red Bull Monster Energy Nestlé Nestlé Nespresso SA Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. Unilever Procter & Gamble Mars Ferrero Mondelēz International Reckitt Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Coca-Cola HBC Coca-Cola CCI Coca-Cola FEMSA JDE Peet's Starbucks Ripple Foods CELSIUS Oatly Spindrift Beverage Co, Inc. AriZona Beverage Co. Zevia

I had the opportunity to write an article for WARC that introduces the 5Bs framework from "Aaker on Branding, 2nd Edition" and provides an overview of the structure and guidance it gives to managing a brand. It also addresses the modern challenges brands face such as hyper-dynamic markets, information overload, clutter and skepticism. Below are the key takeaways from the article: 👉🏻 BRAND EQUITY is a strategic asset requiring coordinated management. Brands drive an organization's health and growth, as stronger brands create more strategic opportunities. The brand equity leadership team must perform three key tasks: understand the brand’s role in current and future organizational strategies, ensure that short-term demand marketing leverages rather than dilutes brand equity, and coordinate the brand-building efforts across all 5Bs. The 5Bs must work seamlessly together, sharing insights and strategies, because weakness in one will affect the others, necessitating strong cooperation and communication across various functional and geographic silos. 👉🏻 The focus in branding has shifted from simple brand preference to BRAND RELEVANCE, meaning managers must make their brand visible and credible in its specific context to be considered by consumers. 👉🏻 BRAND IMAGE encompasses all the associations people have with a brand, influencing customer relationships and organizational culture, and requires a clear brand vision supported by pillars that differentiate and resonate with customers. 👉🏻 Cultivating BRAND LOYALTY is paramount, as retaining existing customers is significantly more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Loyalty is deepened when customers buy into the brand's promise beyond mere transactions, feeling self-expressed, socially tied, or emotionally attached, potentially even joining brand communities. 👉🏻 Brands are rarely built in isolation; rather, the BRAND PORTFOLIO plays a vital role in enhancing a brand's relevance, image, and loyalty. Other brands within the portfolio, such as endorser brands, sub-brands, and co-brands, can provide unique and difficult-to-copy differentiation. Specifically, branded differentiators (e.g., Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolio), branded energizers (e.g., Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign), and branded sources of credibility (e.g., Apple’s Genius Bar) are critical examples of how elements within the portfolio can significantly impact the primary brand's overall standing and perception. You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gSM4-m8Y #aakeronbranding #branding #marketing #5Bs

Marketing has two big jobs, but we're usually judged on only one. Our job in marketing splits into two parts: Building mental availability: making sure people know who we are and remember us when they’re ready to buy. This is often called brand marketing. Activating demand: making sure that people who are ready to buy choose us. This is typically performance or demand marketing. Here’s the challenge — most of our metrics (MQLs, pipeline, revenue) are tied to demand activation. But brand and demand aren’t separate – they work together. Still, they behave differently and aren’t always easy to measure in the same way. Brand is like staying in shape. You go to the gym, eat healthy, and take care of yourself. You don’t always see instant results, but over time, your body gets stronger. → In marketing terms: We want more people to know us, remember us, and think of us when they’re ready to buy. This is a long-term game. Demand activation is like showing up on race day. You’ve trained for months, and now it’s time to perform. If you’re fit, you’ll likely do well. → In marketing terms: When someone’s ready to buy, our goal is to be easy to find and hard to ignore. Most of the time, our execs care about the race day numbers – leads, opps, deals. That’s fair, because those drive revenue. But if we don’t also take care of our brand (our fitness), performance eventually suffers. So what do we do? We need to measure both. Performance marketing already has clear metrics. But brand often feels fuzzy — hard to prove it’s working. That’s why Share of Search (SoS) is useful. It’s a quantifiable way to track how much people are searching for our brand compared to competitors. It acts like a “brand scoreboard”, so we can see how campaigns are moving the needle, even if the revenue impact comes later. So: Use performance metrics for activation (leads, opps, CAC, etc.) Use Share of Search as the north star for brand Run both in parallel, and know that each supports the other Two different motions. Two different metrics. One goal: revenue growth.

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of ads from McDonald's asking me to download their app. Same with Burger King. At first glance, it feels random. But it’s not. The real answer lies in the numbers and in how Domino's has quietly changed the game. In the recent quarter: - Domino’s reported ~12% growth - McDonald’s reported –3.2% growth This is despite McDonald’s opening new stores. Which means existing stores are selling less than before. So what’s Domino’s doing differently? Domino’s is no longer just a #food company. Back in 2012, Domino’s launched its app, long before food aggregation was mainstream and before Swiggy and Zomato became household names. What followed wasn’t overnight success. It was years of tech #investment: - Seamless ordering - Reliable delivery tracking - Habit-forming UX Fast forward to today: For most of Domino's is likely the only 3rd food delivery #app in our phones. It has 7.5 million monthly transacting users. Swiggy & Zomato sit at ~18–20 million with thousands of restaurants. That’s insane retention for a single brand. This has given them the real unlock: distribution. Domino’s is piloting #ads on its delivery tracking screen: with brands like Tata Neu, Apple, HDFC, Flipkart. Think about that for a second. A pizza company is monetising attention. Why this works: - High intent users - Zero aggregation noise - Massive, repeat traffic The second (and bigger) advantage: commissions. 75% of Domino’s orders come directly from its own app. Only 25% comes from aggregators. This gives Domino’s real leverage. So much so that they’ve publicly pushed back on commissions from Swiggy/Zomato, which almost no restaurant in #india can practically do at this point in time. Add to this: #loyalty. Domino’s Cheesy Rewards now has ~40 million users. Which means: - Fewer Swiggy/Zomato orders - More direct relationships - 15–25% commission savings per order At this point, Domino’s looks less like a food #brand and more like a #consumer tech company that happens to sell pizza. And this explains the sudden app push by McDonald’s, Burger King, La Pino’z, and others. Because: - Taste is no longer enough - Standardisation is table stakes - Distribution lives on your phone’s home screen When someone craves a burger or pizza, are you already one tap away? Domino’s answered that question a decade ago. The rest are just catching up now. This shift from food to #tech, from aggregation to ownership, is only going to accelerate given the number of #startups blooming in this sector. And listing on Swiggy/Zomato alone? That’s not a viable long-term #strategy. #kneeledge

Green's the New Gold. When buying luxury beauty products, us consumers want the whole shebang—stunning packaging that feels premium and looks great on our bathroom shelf. For this reason, luxury brands have always dazzled with their extravagant packaging. But behind that glossy exterior is a dirty secret—a mountain of waste... The industry pumps out 120 billion units of packaging annually, most of it tricky to recycle. Brands are starting to become more sustainable, but it's not proving to be easy or cheap. Reducing environmental impact while staying posh has been a tall order. Packaging here isn't just functional—it's how brands shout their identity. Think Tiffany & Co's Blue Box, Harrods' carrier bags, or Chanel's chic perfume boxes. These are not just packaging—they're status symbols. Luxury packaging is an experience, a sensory delight from the first glance to the grand reveal. Often involving delayed gratification with elements like ribbons and pull tabs—features that are typically unsustainable. Critics argue that sustainability cramps luxury's style, which thrives on the finest materials and creative freedom. Sustainable choices are seen as limiting. How can brands blend prestige with eco-friendliness? Is luxury packaging doomed, or can it evolve? Forward thinking brands are partnering with design agencies to navigate this new landscape and uncover solutions. Montague Brand Agency delivered new packaging for Hunter Lab's latest collection that balances opulence with eco-consciousness. Clear demonstration how sustainable materials can elevate luxury packaging, not hinder it. Created from sugarcane bagasse, wood pulp, wheat straw pulp, recycled paper, and more, boxes decompose in 45-60 days, enriching the soil. Design that shows sustainable can also be drop-dead gorgeous. Luxury brands are now at a crossroads. Sustainability is no longer optional—it's a movement driven by consumer demand. The challenge is huge, but so is the opportunity. By thinking differently, luxury brands can redefine what prestige means, making it about responsibility as well as style. Becoming sustainable doesn't mean losing your shine. As consumers get more eco-aware, they'll flock to brands that reflect their values. Sustainability and ethics have become hot selling points. Luxury packaging once, symbolising mere opulence, now looks poised to represent a commitment to a better world. What's your take? How do you see this shift unfolding? 📷Montague Brand Agency

Unpopular Opinion: Heritage brands do not die of old age. They die of playing it safe and nobody tells you that. I keep meeting CEOs who whisper the same thing after the formal part ends. Our classic products still move, but the brand feels tired. The categories feel tight. The energy is somewhere else. Translation. Your story is still loved, but the format needs a rewrite. Here is the simple filter I use in those conversations. If a stranger cannot explain your brand in one clean sentence, you are not ready to expand. New category plans without a sharp core are just expensive wandering. The fun part starts once the core is sharp. Take what made you famous and re-stage it where culture actually lives. the LEGO Group did not become cool with adults by pretending to be a different company. They kept precision and play, then invited grown-ups to build Porsche dashboards at 1 a.m. That is not a pivot. That is a bigger stage. New Balance did not outrun the dad-shoe joke with hype alone. They made the craft visible. They let collaborators reinterpret an old soul. Suddenly the thing people teased became the thing people hunted. Heritage turned into status because the quality never blinked. Partnerships help when they deepen your story. E.L.F. on a Stanley is not just a gimmick. It says beauty belongs in your everyday ritual and it rides a product that lives on kitchen counters and gym floors. That is design as distribution. If your collab does not make your brand truth clearer, skip it. And talent is not a side note. If your team only knows how to protect last year’s playbook, you will protect your way into irrelevance. Borrow brains from fashion, media, gaming, community brands. Pair them with operators who know price, pack, promo, and partners. One group opens doors. The other keeps the lights on. You need both. Most of all, stop trying to be everywhere. Pick one room where your next customer actually hangs out and show up there with something specific. A build night. A drop that fixes a real annoyance. A creator who can translate your craft without turning it into beige content. Test it in public. Scale only what people would miss if you took it away. Heritage is not a museum. It is a passport. It gets you through doors others cannot open. Use it. If you lead a legacy brand, what is the one move this quarter that would make your biggest fan say, finally, they remembered who they are? #heritagebrands #fmcg #trends

Brand building is an investment only when every piece of brand communication consistently reinforces the same brand identity. A powerful brand isn’t built through isolated campaigns. It is built through relentless consistency across every consumer touchpoint. Whether it is the brand’s visual identity, narrative, tonality, distinctive brand assets, sonic cues or mnemonics, every communication should strengthen the same set of brand associations. This is how brands create memory structures, improve recognition and build long-term brand equity. In today’s highly fragmented media ecosystem, consumers engage with brands across multiple screens, platforms and formats. While the media landscape has become increasingly diverse, the brand should remain instantly recognizable—irrespective of where or how consumers encounter it. This places a greater responsibility on marketers and creative agencies to ensure that every communication works as part of one integrated brand ecosystem rather than as standalone creative executions. A modern campaign should therefore be conceived as a 360° Brand Communication System, comprising: • Long-format TVCs • Shorter cut-down edits • 6-second bumper ads and 3-second promo tags • Social media content and reels • Two-way digital engagement posts designed to drive conversations and community participation • Influencer and creator collaborations • Communication assets for e-commerce and online sales platforms • Digital display, CTV, OTT and mobile-first adaptations • In-store and shopper marketing communication Each format may tell the story differently, but all should reinforce the same distinctive brand assets and associations. Brands don’t become stronger by communicating more. They become stronger by communicating more consistently. In an era of fragmented media, creative adaptability is essential—but brand consistency is non-negotiable.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. A discount you didn't believe in. A product you launched for the wrong reason. A customer you chased outside your core. Each one felt small. Together they made your brand unrecognisable - even to you. Here's how to rebuild it: 𝟭. 𝐆𝐨 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 Not your current customer. Your first loyal one. → Ask yourself: who were we built for and are we still serving them? If the answer makes you uncomfortable, you've found the problem. Every identity crisis starts with losing sight of who you actually exist for. 𝟮. 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 List every product, service, and offer you have today. → Mark anything that doesn't reflect what your brand truly stands for. Cut it or park it. A cluttered portfolio doesn't confuse just customers - it confuses your own team about what you're building. 𝟯. 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞-𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝 Not a mission statement. One line that tells your team what good looks like. → Every decision (hiring, pricing, partnerships) - should pass this standard. If it doesn't strengthen your identity, it weakens it. There is no neutral. 𝟰. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐲 Don't quietly change. Tell your audience what you stand for - again. → Customers respect brands that own their direction. A clear public reset builds more trust than pretending nothing shifted. Clarity attracts the right customers and filters the wrong ones. Identity isn't what you say your brand is. It's what every decision proves it to be. #founders #brand #identity #D2C #MSME #business #strategy