Professor David Jobber identifies seven main factors in building successful brands:

Quality

Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. The core benefits must be delivered well, consistently. Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a higher market share and higher profitability that their inferior competitors.

Positioning

Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a market in the minds of consumers. Strong brands have a clear, often unique position in the target market. It can be achieved through the combination of brand name, image, service standards, product guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is delivered.

Repositioning

Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its market position to reflect a change in consumer’s tastes. This is often required when a brand has become tired.

Communications

All elements of the promotional mix need to be used to develop and sustain customer perceptions. Initially, the challenge is to build awareness, then to develop the brand personality and reinforce the perception.

First-mover advantage

In terms of brand development, first-mover means that it is possible for the first successful brand in a market to create a clear positioning in the minds of target customers before the competition enters the market.

Long-term perspective

This leads to the need to invest in the brand over the long-term. Building customer awareness, communicating the brand’s message and creating customer loyalty takes time. This means that management must invest in a brand, perhaps at the expense of short-term profitability.

Internal marketing

Management should ensure that the brand is marketed internally as well as externally. By this we mean that the whole business should understand the brand values and positioning. This is particularly important in service businesses where a critical part of the brand value is the type and quality of service that a customer receives.