The key to winning the battle of the brands.

How consistent passion and purpose is the way to become, stay and always remain a top brand.

“Mercedes you have been warned”.

Some of you may remember the top gear episode in the late 90’s when they reviewed owner satisfaction scores for the main car brands. Clarkson’s conclusion was cutting… “Mercedes you have been warned”.

Wind the clock on 15 years and today the daily mail stated that Mercedes was ranked the most popular car brand in the Superbrands study…warning heeded!

So why is it that brands can react with passion and purpose when they are threatened to be left on the hard shoulder, but find it difficult to maintain belief in themselves and to pursue what they know to be right, when they are able to set their own agenda?

Success, it seems, eventually breeds caution.

Whilst on the up, brands try new things that seem to effortlessly work. Crucially they also learn, then move on, from those that don’t.

But when the stakes get high and expectations are even higher, it only takes a couple of poor results for doubt to creep in, for the brand team to reach for the research budget instead of backing their own judgement and for the passion to fade.

By relying on data we lose our intuitive understanding of what’s best, we lose our belief in our ability to win and most of all we fear what we could lose rather than what we can gain.

So come on M&S, come on Heinz and come on Cadbury! You are all being warned!

Take a leaf out of the Mercedes brochure and believe that in doing what you do best, you will win in the end…see you back in the top 20 next year.