Building strong brands isn’t getting any easier. An explosion in the number of brands—as well as a proliferation of ways to communicate them, from hundreds of cable channels to the Internet, product placement in movies, and even mobile-phone display screens—has made it tougher to get messages through. In addition, converging product-performance and service levels in many industries have made it more difficult to sustain existing brands.1 Meanwhile, the economic downturn has hamstrung marketers by cutting their budgets (Exhibit 1).
Rising above the clutter without breaking the bank will require companies to get smarter about branding. During the 1990s, marketers spent unprecedented sums, but many discovered later that more wasn’t better. The promotional efforts of some companies were indiscriminate, focusing on aspects of the brand that didn’t drive customer buying patterns. Others failed to note shifting customer preferences and evolving market segments; Volvo, for example, lost out on years of potential sales by waiting until 2003 to introduce a sport utility vehicle. In short, marketers relied too heavily on intuition and not enough on a fact-based understanding of the marketplace.
A few companies are starting to build their brands more scientifically—and in doing so have pushed marketing to new...