What is a strong brand?

A strong brand is positioned in such a way that the target audience can make a clear choice for its products or services, thereby providing a competitive advantage over its competitors.

Fictitious example: a market for ballpoint pens has three suppliers, each with one type of pen. All the pens perform excellently, have similar ease of use, and are sold in the same places. Someone looking for a new pen goes to such a place and then chooses from these three pens. In principle, each supplier in this situation should expect a market share of 33.3%.

A strong brand in this case would ensure that the well-positioned brand, for example, has a larger market share because the target audience has a preference (can easily choose) for that brand.

Of course, there are various other benefits/indicators that can also be associated with a strong brand:

• higher margin (premium pricing)
• lower product quality with constant market share
• lower sales costs
• negotiation position of (re)sellers

In short, a strong brand provides a significant (commercial) advantage in the market.

The opposite is also true, of course: a brand that manages to position itself distinctively but fails to gain an advantage from it is not strong.