AllAboutBranding.com : Create Enticing Brands, not 'Lovemarks'

AllAboutBranding.com : Create Enticing Brands, not 'Lovemarks': "The first rule is that you have a greater chance in creating a rare benefit or even an exclusive one (meaning: Differentiation), if you create for your brand a benefit that is 'off-core' in your category. The core benefits are all the benefits that consumers are used to expecting from a product such as yours and they are perceived as important for such a product (from safety in a car to multimedia features in mobile phones). In all that concerns the core benefits, my recommendation is for a 'defense strategy': don't let your competitors be better then you. On the other hand, there is no point for you to make extra efforts in such a direction. Any innovation that you introduce into core benefits will be quickly imitated, as competitors also recognize that these are important benefits to the consumer.

What you are looking for is a benefit that is intuitively important to the consumer, but not yet connected with your product category (I call this: Off-Core Differentiation). An example of this is the commitment at the heart of the strategy of The Body Shop chain of stores for the protection of the environment and helping the needy all over the world. Other examples include the wild humor of the Joe Boxer underwear brand; the policy of Virgin to use a mischievous and cheeky spirit to break the rules of the game and beat the larger companies, creating fun for the consumer along the way; the support of Vans to non-institutionalized sports of teenagers; the provocativeness of Diesel; and there are many more examples. In this way, successful brands enjoy immunity from imitation by competitors, as what they are doing seems so irrelevant to the category. The second rule is to supply this benefit in a new manner, unique and different from how it is supplied in other product categories."