If your brand promise is what makes you different and relevant to customers, then it only makes sense to use your brand as the key part of your strategy. That way, new products and services will increase your brand difference from the competition, making a competitive barrier too high for anyone to clamber over. This doesn’t mean not refreshing your communications, or your look and feel, but knowing what the heart of your promise is, and then doing more of that. It’s how Starbucks rose to dominance, and why Tully’s will forever play catch up—one looks at its brand as the basis for strategy, and the other thinks it’s about a marketing campaign. Or compare REI and Big 5. They both sell sporting goods. But one uses its brand of connecting people with the outdoors as strategy; the other sells on price.

-Lynn Parker

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