Abstract
The cornerstone of many companies' marketing strategy is to develop loyal customers willing to pay premium prices for branded goods and services. Throughout the 1980s, brand marketing moved from its stronghold in the consumer goods industry to the mainstream of business activity. Companies in almost every industry invested heavily in building brands for their products, services and business units.
By the mid-1990s, it had become apparent that the investment in creating a brand was no longer a guarantee of long-term and defensible advantage in the market place. One famous brand after another found that it could no longer command strong price premiums to their competitors nor expect the automatic loyalty of its customers.
This shift in customer behaviour and attitude towards brands did not change, as many had predicted, when the recession of the early 1990s ended. Looking into the future, the writers predict that the spread of powerful new information technologies will further empower customers to extract ever-increasing levels of value from their suppliers. The attack on the ability of brands to create customer loyalty and premium prices will only intensify.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
1Simon Knox is a Professor of Brand Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management and is a consultant to a number of multinational companies, including McDonald's, Levi Strauss, DiverseyLever and the Ocean Group. Prior to joining Cranfield, Simon worked for Unilever in a number of senior marketing roles in both detergents and foods. He publishes extensively on brand equity issues and customer purchasing styles.
2Stan Maklan is a Practice Leader (customer relations management) with CSC Computer Sciences, one of the world's largest IT and Management Consulting firms, and is a regular contributor to international conferences and seminars. He has been a Director at operating companies for Unilever and Burson-Marsteller: international leaders in consumer goods and public relations respectively, as well as a marketing manager for Cable & Wireless (telecommunications). Stan ran his own consultancy specialising in business-to-business marketing before joining CSC. They are joint authors of ‘Competing on Value: Bridging the Gap between Brand and Customer Value’, published by Financial Times/Pitman Publishing in the UK and USA, 1998.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Knox, S., Maklan, S. Brand marketing in transition. J Brand Manag 6, 50–56 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.1998.44
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.1998.44