Brand similarity !!

Most of our efforts in marketing are directed towards creating and building a brand, through which our customers are able to recognize us and patronize us. And over a period of time we hope to be able to capitalize on the equity we have created through brand extensions. But this was all very true some ten years back, today things are changing very fast, in terms of the media, technology, new product development, competitive initiatives, which are all leading to a scenario of 'brand similarity'.

When with in a product category brands become similar, there is nothing on which a consumer can differentiate them, part from price. I was thinking about the categories in which brands have become similar, but initially found it very difficult, as a marketer it was difficult to for me to believe that brands could be similar, sort of an oxymoron.

But after some thinking i did come up with some examples , but more of them were in the commodity nature,,,,,the context of brand similarity or dissimilarity is the impact that sales promotion would have one the long-terms sales of a brand. In a category were brand dissimilarity exists promotions might have an longer-term impact than in categories where brands are more similar.

Then on a single day i got two good examples, and one from personal experience and other one from the newspaper. First the personal example, I have been planning to purchase a 240 liter two door fridge for quite some time now. And after many days of procrastinating i walked into a consumer durables shop near-by and started my inquiry. A very good salesman from the shop came and showed the various models which were available. Hew showed me three brands Godrej, LG, and some of brand. I asked him the price he said 12990/- for all the three brands. If I wanted a metallic finish i had to pay 1000/- more. I took some literature and came back to the office. I wanted to buy a fridge but was not sure of which brand, all the brand were similar to my mind. I am yet to decide on which one to buy. I read a similar experience of a business standard columnist in choosing between a WagonR and Zen Estilo....

Life for the average marketer is only going to become tougher...............