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Brand Strategy Insider helps marketing-minded executives and professionals like you to build strong brands. BSI readers know we regularly answer questions from marketers everywhere. Today we hear from Kari, a brand marketer in Toronto, Canada, asking this about branding differentiation.

“Have you ever come across a product that couldn't be branded in a meaningful way? For example plastic buttons. Their cost and perceived value are so low that building any level of customer loyalty is out of the question. Can such a product even be branded? "

Kari, thanks for asking. At The Blake Project, we strongly believe that anything can be branded. Think vodka, a relatively colorless, odorless liquid. We imagine that people who have never been exposed to brands of vodka might think that vodka cannot be branded, but we all know that there are numerous brands of vodka, some of which charge a significant price premium. The same goes for bananas, chicken and water. If these items can be branded, anything can. When a prospect tells us that their business is in a commodities industry, we tell them that they are simply not thinking properly about the product category or product / service offering.

Any product or service can be branded even in the most price sensitive categories where products from all manufacturers appear to be the same. It is only a matter of carefully transforming this product or service into a brand through a brand development process that is based on extensive customer research and creates an emotional, distinctive and unifying advantage.

Back to the vodka example: Research shows that on average 50% of purchase decisions are based on emotions. In the vodka category, this figure reaches up to 90%. Because of this, Gray Goose sells at a much higher price than Smirnoff. However, when taken from its emotionally provocative bottle, consumers vote Smirnoff over Gray Goose in 9 out of 10 taste tests. Irrational? Maybe. Emotionally? Certainly. In order to encode a unique value in the mind, the brand must be built on the meaning. Meaning, of course, is the center of value and the source of emotional connection.

I encourage you to explore these 61 ways that you can use to create meaningful differentiation for your brand.

We hope this was helpful to Kari.

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