Companies with a large number of products, such as multi-brand groups, find it difficult to present and position themselves as a unified brand.

Producers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) like to use the Brand Key model to raise their brand awareness among customers. This model is a more modern and detailed version of Esch’s Brand Wheel, which can also be used to analyse the brand models of various brands in various categories.

Knowing the competition is critical for successful brand positioning and management. It’s crucial to understand your own brand and, more importantly, your own customers.

The Brand Key is a useful tool for seeing this side more clearly. In a confusing and sometimes oversaturated market, the Brand Key can also assist in the search for the right positioning.

Defining the Brand’s Core Idea

But, in a single sentence, how do you describe a diverse brand model?

From brand positioning to product development, the brand’s “genetic code” will be present. First and foremost, consider something tangible. If you think about it for a moment, I’m sure you can come up with a number of examples of brands such as Volvo and the keyword “safety.”

It’s worth asking yourself three questions if you want to define your Brand Essence:

• What are your objectives?
• What exactly do you do for a living?
• How do you go about doing what you do?

As a Successful Positioning Model, the Brand Key Brand Profile

After you’ve defined your brand DNA, there are four branding elements to consider.

• What advantages do customers get from purchasing your brand?
• What are the values that your brand represents? (This is where your “personality” comes in.)
• Reasons to trust: Why should customers trust your brand’s promises?
• What are your company’s or brand’s unique selling propositions that set it apart from competitors and other brands?

All four questions should be phrased as precisely as possible. The more concisely you can answer these questions, the easier it will be for you to work with and on the basis of them in the future. This section of the Brand Key actively assists you in better understanding and, if necessary, modifying your own brand to readjust the brand image.

Infinite Answers to Four Questions

Look over your “advantages.” For brand positioning, a low price is no longer a truly unique selling proposition. Consumers nowadays also expect products to be of the highest quality.

Functional or emotional benefits, on the other hand, are far more important. That’s right, you read that correctly. Emotional benefits, because a customer’s decision to buy a certain brand can make them feel good – and this is a valuable asset.

This could be anything from environmental stewardship to fair trade to assisting young single parents. Consider the possibilities!

Or have you discovered a way to incorporate a unique feature into your products that no one else has considered? Allow your customers to partake in your inventiveness!

It’s a little more difficult to express your brand’s personality. However, in the Brand Key, this is one of the most important elements, because your brand’s personality will – indirectly, like the Essence – influence all subsequent communication and product development decisions.

Facts Assist in Understanding

Customers want guarantees, even if there is plenty of room for creativity in marketing. Hard facts are required for reasons, or reasons why your brand actually delivers the promised advantage over other brands.

Try to come up with an answer to the question of why your product is the best option for your customers. It’s worth cutting back on the creativity mentioned earlier and focusing solely on concrete facts at this point.

On the one hand, they’re easier for you to communicate with, and on the other, they’re much easier for customers to comprehend.

In addition, they are objectively compared to other brands.

After you’ve checked off these three elements, there’s one more thing to consider: your brand’s unique selling point. It can be difficult to distinguish this from the Benefits or Values, but it is important to be as specific as possible when defining this characteristic. After all, it allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. With the USP, you actively assist your customers in choosing you over other brands.

A View of the Environment

Now that you’ve taken an in-depth look at your brand from the inside, the next step in Brand Key is to also look at your competitive environment. Again, there are four factors to look at.

• Root Strength: the values and advantages on which the brand is based
• Competitive Environment: alternatives that the customer sees, i.e. other brands besides your brand
• Target: the person who will always prefer your brand
• Consumer Insight: the knowledge that you have about your customers

A look at the visual model of the Brand Key will tell you that Root Strength is the foundation of the model.

As a result, you should start from the bottom and work your way up. What is the foundation of your branding, what are the benefits or values that have defined your brand from the start? Again, the more precisely you formulate these contributions, the easier it will be to use them later.

In the Brand Key, both the competition and the target audience are equally important. This is unsurprising, given that they are, without a doubt, the same customers that your competitors are vying for with their brands.

Equally Essential, but Not the Same

Always consider your competition through the eyes of your target market. What is your customer’s opinion of the market and competitors to your brand? The more honest you are with yourself, the more accurate your picture will be – and the better positioned you will be in the future to position yourself in the middle of the market.

It’s comparable to the target, or your intended audience. If you want a specific clientele, but they don’t fit with your brand (so far? ), it’s pointless. Personal attitudes to brand-relevant issues are just as important as behaviour, lived values, and socio-economic factors to define in your target person.

The knowledge you have about your customer is the final factor, and it also connects to the inside view of your brand. However, this isn’t about your “model customer,” but rather about the real desires and needs of your customers, to which you want to respond with your brand, and which you can or will in the future. In this case, thorough acquisitions aid in the future establishment of processes that bring your position closer to your target.

Brand Key Conclusion

Whether you’re in charge of a long-established brand that you want to reposition as a brand or you’re just getting your start-up off the ground, the Brand Key is an excellent tool for dissecting your company, customers, and competitors.

The importance of such an analysis for brand management and proper market positioning is probably obvious to everyone. Only by having a thorough understanding of all of the categories listed above can the brand’s proper position be determined, making it easier to navigate the marketplace. As a result, necessary brand expansions, as well as individual company departments, become apparent. In addition, you can always enlist the help of a branding agency for strategy and development.