Industries converge and change at a rapid rate today. This is changing the entire concept of competition as we know it. Consumers no longer seem to use traditional industry definitions to drive their behaviour. 

In a digital age, this is an important principle as strong brands are more likely to survive than product or service categories. 

I call brands that are naturally able to straddle product or service categories, “concept” brands. This is when the DNA of the brand holds a consumer promise (or value proposition) that extends beyond a given “category”. Consumers buy the brand rather than the category. 

Apple Inc designs products that are beautiful to look at and easy to use, regardless of category within which it competes. Alessi designs products that are simple and easy to use, from watches to household utensils. Swarovski competes in many markets, from small ornaments, to fashion, to light fittings, to cameras, to jewellery. Traditionally, Virgin offered the consumer better value than its category peers. This is not the same as brand line extensions, very few of these are equally successful in all categories.  

In these instances, the brand is not a specific product, even if it is more dominant in some categories than in others. In some instances it includes services (iTunes; software) and products (iPhone; iPad). It stands for a concept or an idea that is wider and bigger.

This is unlike brands like Toyota and Vodafone, where in name and perceptually, the brands are narrowly defined. There may be a limit to how far they can stray. Their natural associations are not concepts, they are product categories. In other instances, functionality is added (like Apple becoming involved in financial services). 

Dove is one of the most iconic recent examples of a concept brand. By starting with a beauty soap bar with a unique value proposition (moisturising milk), it used that as the basis to define the concept of beauty in a unique way. This has enabled the brand to straddle many categories almost “naturally”. From simple soap, to cosmetic brands. Because the concept of beauty takes on such broad and unique significance in how campaigns like “Faces” have defined it, it broadened its competitive base to straddle many line extensions. In the process, it created a new market space. 

The greatest benefit of a concept brand is that it enables seamless brand extensions. It creates a natural master brand – one that starts with a wider canvas. 

So how do you create one?

First define the over-riding value proposition or DNA for the brand. One that is unique and able to straddle categories by offering the same regardless of within which category it competes. Then exemplify it in every product or service launched.  This also means a brand remains true to what it is, as any product or service that does not support the concept, will die a natural death.