Now what is this? If this is running in your mind hold just hold, and keep reading…This is a subject that branding consultants usually do not touch on because it’s not in their best interest.
Although i feel branding is extremely important but there are situations where branding is not required because it is not the correct solution. So when is branding necessary? The answer to this depends on which part of commodities continuum does your brand fall. The commodities continuum is divided into two parts Left and Right. The left side represent products that are highly Commoditiesd and on right are products that are highly branded.
At the right side products and services an important role is played by the brand preference in influencing the purchase decisions. And yes highly branded products are not limited to Customer 2 Customer (C2C) sector. Rather some of the most valuable brands in the world are commercial (B2B) companies like IBM, GE, Microsoft and the list goes on.
If your product or service falls on the highly branded end of the continuum, branding is – unquestionably important to you. But what about those who fall on the other side of the continuum?
The other side of continuum belongs to highly commoditized products or services they do not have to be actual commodities like grains, coffee, and crude oil. Many of these products are sold under well known brand names but for all intents and purpose are commodities.
They do not have to be low-tech products either .Some very high-tech products on market are generally regarded as commodities. Memory-Chips, Hard Disk, CD-ROM drives- are all high-tech products sold under various brand names but are not highly branded. Rather these are highly commoditized products that are bought on price. There is no brand loyalty among their buyers.
Highly commoditized categories are characterized by two things:
1. Percieved Product parity
2. Intense Price Competition
