Drinks brand Guinness has a long history of leveraging its distinctive assets to meaningfully differentiate itself from its competitors and, after some recent wobbles, its recent campaigns are back on track. 

Why brand distinctiveness matters

Brands can sometimes interpret the quest to be “meaningfully different” as a need to address higher order societal issues when they might be better served by focusing on more everyday category concerns, according to brand marketing director Anna McDonald. For Guinness, that means quality, taste and emotion.

Takeaways 

• Keep it relevant: the brand has evolved the way it thinks about the perfect pint, away from...