Mar 1, 2009: Consumer brands lacking differentiation
A recent survey by BBDO came to the conclusion that two thirds (64 percent) of German consumers perceive brands as exchangeable, thus lacking clear unique selling propositions (USP). Far too often, consumer goods producers would apply stereotypes in advertising and branding. In addition, there was way too much competition on price. Among several categories, dairy products (76 percent) and detergents (81 percent) performed worst in terms of clear differentiation (numbers in brackets indicate percentage of surveyed consumers who stated a lack of differentiation among brands in the respective category). In the consumer electronics segment, replaceability among personal computer brands rose from 51 (2004) to 60 percent (2008) which was mainly attributed to heavy cuts in advertisement spendings by producers, falling from € 24 million to € 5 million. On the contrary, cars, clothing and perfume set themselves apart from each other quite well. Overall, however, they used to have even clearer USPs four years ago.
