By Prof. Dominique Turpin, President Emeritus and Professor of Marketing, CEIBS

A number of marketers and academics have expressed concern that brands are losing their appeal, and that consumers are becoming less and less loyal to them. Havas, a European international communications agency, reported the following findings in its 2025 Meaningful Brands study:

• 78% of the brands measured by Havas were ones consumers said they would not care about losing.
• 69% of people believe brands should help them save money, and the same share say they are quick to switch when they find a more affordable or convenient option.
• 45% of people say they have stopped buying from brands that do not share their views and values.

These findings may sound discouraging, but I see them as a sign that brands need to work harder to earn people’s trust and loyalty. I believe that today brands are more important than ever. Building a brand is about building trust with customers, and that trust becomes even more critical as the world grows more complex and uncertain. Brand management, then, is the ongoing work of shaping how customers perceive that brand, so that its reputation, its promise and its value stay consistent and credible over time.

One reason why customers and consumers may be less loyal to brands is that they don’t see much value in what certain companies have to offer, simply because some companies have become complacent, or because they have decided to cut their communications and innovation budgets or to compete on price with less and less differentiated products.

When a brand cuts its budget, the impact on its reputation may be limited in the short term. If this becomes a habit, though, the consequences can be serious, because continuous investment in marketing communications and innovation is what keeps a brand alive.

This pattern is classic: Executives start cutting budgets to improve their bottom line and the overall business performance. As a result, financial performance improves, they often get promoted and leave the problem of declining brand reputation and declining market share to their successor. Then, they often repeat the same behaviour in their next job.

Build a Differentiated and Meaningful Value Proposition

One of the golden rules for building and growing brands is to offer a differentiated and meaningful value proposition. In other words, to put the brand in consumers' minds with its point of differentiation. If I take the example of CEIBS, we are the only business school in the world that has "China Depth" and "Global Breadth."

Meaningful differentiation is the essence of marketing itself. If a brand wants to grow at home and internationally, the starting point is to create value that is different and meaningful. "Different" is the key word here, because if you are just like everyone else, why should customers choose you?

But being different for the sake of being different is not enough. You need to be meaningful too, which means solving a genuine problem for the customer  (or what I personally like to call "a customer headache"). You create value by making a customer's life easier, better, or cheaper – not more difficult.

This is why many marketers have stopped asking customers what they need or want. Customers usually don't know. Nobody wrote to Steve Jobs asking for an iPhone. But Jobs solved a real headache: how to carry a phone, a watch, a camera, games, and thousands of songs in a single device that fits in your pocket.

A differentiated, meaningful value proposition is the first step. Without it, you risk turning your products and services into commodities. When customers can't see any clear differentiation or value in what you offer, price becomes the only thing that decides whether they buy.

Price should be the reflection of the perceived value of your products and services in the eyes of consumers (and not the main factor of their purchasing decision). This perceived value is what builds brand equity over time. Ideally, branding is not about getting your prospects to prefer you over your competitors – it's about getting your customers to see you as the only solution to their problems.

Innovate Beyond Products and Services

The second golden rule is innovation (i.e., broad innovation, not just products). Innovative brands like Huawei, BYD, Rolex and LEGO continue to thrive, while complacent brands are tempted to save money by cutting their marketing and R&D budgets. As Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, used to say: "In good times, you need to communicate and innovate; in bad times, you must communicate and innovate."

I know this might feel counterintuitive to some people, but I believe Matsushita was right. Communication and innovation on every front are critical if a brand wants to maintain visibility and attraction. And innovation is not limited to products. It needs to run through everything a company does, from distribution and processes to entire business models.

The most successful disruptors today aren't just innovating on products. They're innovating across their entire business model. They outsource production, build digital platforms, and remove intermediaries to go directly to customers. In other words, they rethink the whole business system to remove the pain points customers faced under the old model. Consider how Didi has displaced the traditional taxi business.

The biggest obstacle most companies face here is a lack of imagination. If you think sugar, electricity, and oil are commodities, think again. There are plenty of examples where creativity has strengthened brands in categories that look like commodities. In Germany, you can buy electricity produced without nuclear power. Japanese companies are experts at producing sugar in every imaginable shape and colour. The French have built strong brands around water, whether it has bubbles (Perrier) or doesn't (Evian).

Take Shell, the energy company, as another example. In Switzerland, when 95% of motorists stop at a gas station they buy the cheapest gasoline. However, 95% is not 100% and 5% of Swiss drivers buy V Power, a gasoline developed by Shell in partnership with Ferrari. It is 10% more expensive than regular gasoline. It’s only 5% of the total volume of gasoline that Shell sells in Switzerland but this 5% represents 15% of their total profits. But in order to convince customers to buy V Power, Shell had to create a beautiful and credible story: namely, that they worked with Ferrari to develop gasoline that is good for your engine!

Communicate Consistently and Credibly

This leads me to my third point: the importance of consistent and credible communication. Storytelling is critical in building a brand because the difference between a product and a brand is that a product is functional while a brand is both functional and emotional. In fact, the more emotions you build into the consumer's mind, the more iconic your brand will be.

The Swiss, for example, make great luxury watches. But why do people still buy watches when the time is more accurate on your mobile phone? Because when you buy a Rolex, a Patek Philippe, an Audemars Piguet, a Hublot, or an Omega watch, you are buying more than a timepiece — you are buying prestige, status, and the image of being a connoisseur!

Now, one of the biggest traps in communications is changing your message too often. Marketers frequently make this mistake because they grow tired of their own message faster than their customers do. Here is a bit of a paradox: I said earlier that you need to innovate, and that still holds. But when it comes to communication, you also need consistency. You need to keep innovating without losing the things that make your brand recognisable.

A good example of this is Singapore Airlines. The airline has used the Singapore Girl as a central part of its communications for well over 50 years. If I showed you pictures of the Singapore Girl from 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002, 2012, 2022, I would challenge you to give me the exact year when each of the pictures was taken. That is brand consistency in action, built and protected over half a century.

Apply the Three Rules to Brand Growth

Branding is the ultimate form of differentiation. It's no longer just about quality or service. In the past, across many industries, differentiation was built on quality, but today's consumers largely take quality for granted. People are willing to buy at low prices because they trust that the quality of most products is good enough.

Therefore, to grow and sustain a brand, whether local, national, or global, three rules must be applied:

1. Create a differentiated and meaningful value proposition
2. Innovate on every possible dimension
3. Communicate extensively and credibly

These three rules work together. Differentiation gives a brand something worth saying. Innovation keeps that story worth saying as markets and customer expectations change. Communication is what makes the story heard and believed, turning a good idea into a brand customers trust.

Applied together, and applied consistently over time, these three rules are what separate brands that fade from brands that last.

Dominique Turpin is President Emeritus and Professor of Marketing at CEIBS. He previously served as CEIBS President (European) from 2022 to 2025, and before that as President and Dean of IMD in Switzerland from 2010 to 2016. His research and teaching focus on brand management, customer orientation and communications strategy, alongside his long-standing interest in building global brands.

Frequently asked questions

What is brand management?

Brand management is the ongoing work of managing how people see and experience a brand. It helps keep the brand's identity and value consistent across areas such as product positioning and customer experience.

Why is brand management important?

Strong brand management gives customers a reason to choose one company over another, even when the products are similar. It builds trust over time and helps a brand stand out without competing only on price.

What is the difference between a brand and a product?

A product is mainly about what it does. A brand includes that function, but it also carries the meaning and expectations people connect with it. That is what can make one product more memorable than another.

How can a brand differentiate itself when products look the same?

Differentiation does not always need to come from the product itself. Brands can stand out through positioning and storytelling that give customers a clear reason to choose them. Shell's V-Power fuel and Perrier's sparkling water are examples of brands creating a distinct identity in categories where the core product can seem similar.