Brand Essence

The key to a successful repositioning program is clear thinking about the nature of your brand essence. Many companies skip the brand introspection, purpose, values and philosophy step. Instead they go straight to product line planning and marketing tactics.

A process called “laddering” is often used to uncover the essence of a brand.

Brand Essence is the heart and soul of a brand – a brand’s fundamental nature or quality. Usually stated in two to three words, a brand’s essence is the one constant across product categories and throughout the world.

In his book, Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Adam Morgan indicates that people enthusiastically share information for one of four reasons: (1) bragging rights, (2) product enthusiasm, (3) aspirational identification or (4) news value.

Branding Strategy Insider helps marketing oriented leaders and professionals like you build strong brands. Readers know, we regularly answer questions from marketers everywhere. Today we hear from Rich, a Director of Marketing from Seattle, Washington who has this question about brand essence.