Get real: the return of the product

Refutes as a myth the widespread marketing belief that brands in a category lack differentiation in functional performance, and therefore depend wholly on the emotional elements in branding to create distinctiveness.

Get Real: The Return of the Product

Greet SterenbergResearch International's QualitatifMalcolm BakerB/R/S Group

The broad history of consumer culture has been largely concerned with the evolution of goods from commodity status to the sophisticated constructs we now call brands. And in our relationships with these constructs there is often a natural tension between elements of the product and the surrounding construction of the brand.

If you had to pick one idea that underpinned the boom in branding in the last decade, 'functional equivalence' might be it. The idea that products lack meaningful performance differentiation has been widely...

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