How focus on brand preference helps marketeers with consumer inspired and fact fueled growth.

In 1967 Philip Kotler published his book "Marketing Management". "Marketing Management" became an absolute hit and the inspiration source for a whole new generation of marketers. Kotler was the first to talk about developing products and services based on customer needs instead of the production capabilities of the company itself. He also developed the concept of the marketing mix with his famous 4-P model. Product, price, place and promotion were the 4 commandments of every marketer. The influence of Kotler on marketers in the second half of last century can therefore hardly be overestimated. His thinking inspired countless companies in the Western world to base their business operations on the (unmet) needs of the consumer. And his 4-P model formed the basis for every strategic marketing plan for decades.

From Unique Selling Position to Unique Emotional Position

Yet the 4-P model lost popularity at the end of last century. There were several reasons for this. Bad products and unreliable service providers disappeared. Good ideas are easily copied by the competition in due time. Also functional differences between the products are getting smaller and smaller. It also becomes more difficult to make a difference in distribution. All supermarkets carry more or less the same product range, and each small village houses several bank offices with identical services. Competitors keep a close eye on each other's prices and sometimes even make illegal agreements at sector level. So there is only one P left from the original 4Ps, the P of Promotion. Kotler concludes himself; the Unique Selling Position (USP) is dead. And with the slogan "people buy no longer products but experiences", he launched the concept of Unique Emotional Position (UEP). After all, you do not need a Rolex to see what time it is.

The rise and fall of Emo-marketing

That the popularity of the Unique Emotional Positioning coincides with the rise and spectacular growth of (commercial) television is no coincidence. Marketing becomes mainly advertising. TV advertising appears to be the magic way to build a deeper emotional bond with the general audience. The large multinationals benefit the best from this opportunity. They invest the most in research, can afford the best advertising talent and have the financial means to blow away the smaller competitors in the media. Small brands are losing out. Only temporary as we know now. Since the impetuous rise of the internet creates a new ecosystem for a new generation of innovation-driven companies.

New generations, more conscious and interested consumers get access to better information about, for example, quality and the origin of brands. It becomes clear to them that the big brand promises of many of the beautifully crafted advertising messages are in reality often exaggerated. The advertising bubble is punctured. Young disruptive entrepreneurs know how to reach the world via the internet and the power of social media with their innovative products, contemporary service concepts and fresh stories. The Unique Emotional Proposition seems to have found its Waterloo.

Towards a Unique Preferred Proposition

In our Brand Preference studies, we see that new generations of consumers, in addition to "emotional connection", also find elements such as "meaningful disffereninaion" and "good price-value ratio" very important in determining their brand preference. A good example is the beer market in the Netherlands. Freddy Heineken once said, "People do not drink beer, they drink marketing". The question is whether he would still say this today. Nowadays "meaningful differentiation" is a leading driver of brand preference in the Dutch beer market.. And in its home market Heineken scores significantly lower on important pillars liken"meaningful differentiation" and "good price-value ratio" than runner-up Hertog-Jan. Combine that with the fact that brands today should be within reach "anytime, anyplace, anywhere", then the conclusion is clear. Kotler's 4P's are more valid than ever. And adding the 5th P of the Brand Preference Index, portraying the coherence between the 4Ps within a category, the preferred proposition of a brand is more clearly described than Kotler ever dreamed.