How to build an iconic brand

Douglas Holt

Brand nirvana is to build an icon - to create a brand like Coke, Harley or Nike that generates huge market value over long periods because it serves as a container for cultural ideals.

How To Build An Iconic Brand

Douglas HoltHarvard Business School

 

The 'mind-share' branding model took off in the US in the 1970s. In a series of articles in Advertising Age later expanded into the best-selling book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind Al Ries and Jack Trout put forward a simple argument: for a brand to succeed in a society in which the volume of mass communication far exceeded what consumers could digest, it must own a simple, focused position in the prospect's mind.

This position should be based upon what was...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands