What Makes Brands Great
• Role of the brand: they serve as a route map for purchasing behavior and when managed properly, generally accrue significant value to their owners
• For many years, most brand owners relied on marketing-oriented measures such as awareness and esteem. Today they use more innovative and financially driven techniques to better quantify the value that brads represent
• Brand leaders appear to perform consistently well against a broad range of factors, including tangible equity, customer purchasing habits and market stature. The reason is that they share certain characteristics and approaches that contribute to their success as a brand and a business
WHAT GREAT BRANDS SHARE
• There are five notable qualities that leading brands share
Three principal attributes:
1. A compelling idea
• Behind every brand is a compelling idea, which captures customer’s attention and loyalty by filling an unmet or unsatisfied need

2. A resolute core purpose and supporting values
• These remain in place even though the business strategy and tactics have to be regularly revised to address and take advantage of the circumstances of a changing, and in the detail often largely unanticipated, world and business environment.
• Example: From the 7 Series to the Mini, the BMW brand stands for “the ultimate driving machine” – the core remains the same: to deliver an outstanding experience though superior car performance
• This strategy illustrates an opportunity captured by connecting with a wider market without eroding the core purpose and positioning of the parent company

3. A central organizational principle
• The brand position, purpose and values are employed as management levers to guide decision-making
• “Once the enterprise understands what the brand is all about, it gives direction to the whole enterprise. You know what products you’re supposed to