What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn seven product branding examples from some of the most loved brands in the
world such as levi's apple and nike so you can understand how big brands elevate their products
do not just stand out from the competition but to develop a cult following all on their own
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals using
strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab the
program strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now i created
a video recently called what is product branding with strategy pros and cons now if you haven't
seen that video i recommend it as a great primer to the introduction of product branding i'll leave
a link in the description below so you can check out that video but to summarize the definition
of product branding briefly it's the discipline of actively building a positive reputation for a
product which focuses on the distinction of the product rather than the company
and professional brand strategists are able to achieve this by using effective positioning
distinctive brand assets and tailored brand messaging just as they do for any other brand
so why do some big brands use product branding well in reality there's no one reason and you need
to consider everything from consumer needs to the competitive landscape to the relationship between
one product in your portfolio and another but without a doubt two of the biggest benefits
of product branding is distinctiveness and memorability so your customers can remember not
just your business but your specific products now although the term product branding isn't something
that the average joe on the street would claim to know a great deal about without a doubt that joe
knows a lot of product brands so let's take a look at a few examples product branding
example number one is ford mustang now ford is a brand with real heritage that's been around for
so long was involved in the transport industry's transition from horses to cars and as henry ford
once famously said if i asked people what they wanted they would have told me faster horses
now there are many classic cars in ford's history but few with the beauty and the nostalgia as the
mustang through roles on the big screen including steve mcqueen's bullet and gone in 60 seconds the
mustang is a product brand that stands out on its own buyers don't say that they're buying a ford
they say they're buying a mustang product branding example number two is nike air max now when phil
knight created a tiny shoe company called blue ribbon focused on track and field he knew next
to nothing about golf soccer or eyewear now when blue ribbon became nike and began expanding into
different sports and lifestyle categories the nike brand turned to product branding for flexibility
and specified targeting to speak more directly to niche audiences now the air max brand is an
example of just one of nike's product brands which in itself has grown a cult following there's a
brand called sneaker freaker which is dedicated to cold sneakers now it's got 1.3 million instagram
followers and they have an entire section on the history and the evolution of the air max and this
is just one example of how this cult product brand is celebrated product branding example number
three is levi's 501s now although levi's are distinctly american brand growing up in ireland
in the 90s they were the brand of jeans that everyone in my little corner of the world
wore certainly my group of mates anyway but the brand levi's on their own wasn't enough
the levi's brand was over 150 years old but they had a 100 year old product brand that set the bar
that cut the mustard and that gained approval it wasn't enough to have a pair of levi's
in my world if you didn't have a pair of 501s you had nothing product branding example number four
is coca-cola's sprite now coke without a doubt is one of the most well distributed products in
the world and there are very few civilized places on the planet that you can go to without finding
a coke in a corner shop in a market stall in a vending machine but as big as coke is there are
limitations on the slice of the soft drink market share that it can acquire because quite simply
some people just don't like to drink cola so in order to both protect the brand equity of coke
and increase its overall market share coke has built a portfolio of product brands including
sprite fanta and parade among many and these are excellent examples of successful product brands
product branding example number five is apple's iphone now when steve jobs returned to apple in
1997 he killed about 70 percent of the products in development in order to simplify the apple
brand and its product offering and what remained was a streamlined portfolio of product brands
that made consumer decision making and product reputation growth much much easier now of course
apple has many more products today but they're each masterfully branded from name to design and
although their individual product brands are catapulted from the equity of the apple brand
reputation they're each known in their market as individual brands which include the iphone
the imac the macbook pro the iwatch and the ipad product branding example number six mcdonald's big
mac now although mcdonald's release new products all the time many of them are limited offers but
some products have become the cornerstone of the daddy of the fast food category now many of their
favorites are uniquely distinguished as mcdonald's products by simply having the mac before the name
so for example mcnuggets and the mcchicken burger and everywhere in between but their poster child
product is still the big mac now a little side note here mcdonald's actually lost the
trademark to the big mac in europe in 2019 and their competitors had an absolute field day by
using the name extensively in their menu options as a better alternative such as the like a big mac
but actually big and the big mackish but flame grilled of course so it's absolutely brilliant but
it highlights the point that if you're gonna go to the trouble of building brand equity you'd better
be protecting it now just before we jump into some more product branding examples if you have any
questions drop me a comment below and of course if you like this video give it a thumbs up hit
that subscribe and the notification bell will let you know when i release new videos just like this
product branding example number seven is adobe photoshop now although adobe isn't a household
name brand it most certainly is for designers across the world adobe has a large portfolio
of products that all offer customers different capabilities which leverage different skill sets
from photoshop to indesign and everywhere in between it would be very easy for adobe
to confuse their customers without leveraging product branding to distinguish between them
the uniquely colored icons their image style and other brand assets make identifying products easy
and also allows each of those products to develop their own reputation within niche markets now all
of these examples are of brands that have plenty of resources though that doesn't need to be the
case to use this strategy product branding is simply one strategy of many that brands can use to
distinguish themselves and their products at the top end product branding can be as expensive and
as expensive as you want it to be that said some of the benefits of this strategy can be leveraged
simply by naming and distinguishing your products clearly from one to the next and
as with everything in branding the easier you make your products and services to understand
the easier you make them to buy now as i mentioned earlier product branding
allows for more specified positioning which is the cornerstone of every brand strategy
if you want to learn more about what brand positioning is with top brand examples then
this video will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video
you