Brands

* At the level of "Brand Contest", a brand gains competitive strength by looking from inside out. It takes care of established drivers like performance, relevance or differentiation and is
* To motivate the target group to engage with the brand, Brands Ahead must find their own standpoint at the "Brand Content" level. Which Brand Content – which communicated content
* Relevant content is increasingly determined by the target group's environment. At the "Brand Context" level, the brand gains importance when it seamlessly integrates into the everyday life of customers

"Everything stays different: this best describes the future challenge. Brand missions, attitudes, performance promises naturally remain important, but increasingly flexible and agile. Brands

The six core drivers for Brand Performance
Another key finding of the study is that there are no blanket answers for the future viability of brands. These would not reflect the individual brand reality with the number of possible

Brand in transition. Established drivers remain, but must be reinterpreted.
As "always important", known aspects such as trust, customer orientation, performance promise and attitude/mission are classified. An exciting indicator of brand in transition is the age split. While

Concentration vs. Complexity.
Challenge: The balancing act between the clearly defined brand core and the multiple instruments of brand management.
Prototypical for the balancing act between complexity and concentration is the high approval for the fact that brands don't have to be managed democratically, as well as for the fact that brands can be participatory

Relevance is created through context. Personal meaning is created through flexible action in the living environment.
Relevance, in contrast to static brand positioning, takes on a significantly more dynamic facet. It must reflect the change in situational moods. The ability to react rather than act

Dialogue depth beats dialogue breadth. Dialogue quality is more important than the variety of dialogue platforms.
Especially against the background of the digitalization of communication, an almost homogeneous picture emerges: the mere possibility of dialogue does not yet allow differentiation. But investment in good dialogue

More empathy instead of just technology. The benchmark for innovation culture is the person with their needs.
Innovation capability is rated higher for one's own brand than for brands overall – an interesting self-image/external-image contrast. Decisive is the high approval for innovation to

Attitude vs. Function.
Value promise supplements performance promise. Brands must be equipped for competition on both levels.
Knowing that values don't automatically make a brand future-proof, a clear and lived value attitude of a brand is affirmed by nearly all respondents, as is that behind every trend

"Brands have the power to reflect values and form value communities. Without the corresponding performance support through the brand, neither the formation of pure value communities nor the

Prof. Dr. Ralf E. Strauß, President of the German Marketing Association, also sees the clear leadership mandate on the side of brand makers: "However, for the marketing organization itself to be future-proof