Kantar shows that differentiation is key to younger brands, but distinctiveness for older brands , generalizing our research showing the importance of sticking to your positioning. Second, emerging markets see a greater importance of differentiation. As Manoli ponders, distinctiveness may suffice for habitual buying , while differentiation is

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Brand sustainability comes down to two things:  relevance and differentiation.  Something either affects a brand's relevance; is it meaningful to my life today? And its differentiation; is it unique and can I identify that uniqueness? Everything falls into one of those two buckets as it relates to brand.  The goal is to be high on both. 

There are

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Instead, better is to focus on creating and nurturing brand differentiation in the eyes of the consumer, through creation of buyer value. Buyer value protects a brand’s pricing power, as consumers are willing to pay premium for value they think they cannot get anywhere else.