Guest Lecture Marketing Strategy – Study Notes
These notes summarise the guest lecture on Marketing Strategy by The House of Marketing.
They are written for exam revision, keep the original structure of the lecture, and use the
original English terminology for key concepts.
1 Who are we – The House of Marketing
The House of Marketing is a consulting company that helps organisations develop strong
value propositions. They work across the Benelux and combine consulting and interim
services. Their focus is to help companies create products and services that customers
really value and are willing to pay for.
Key activities of The House of Marketing are:
1 Strategy: helping companies make the right choices about markets, brands and long term
direction.
2 Value proposition: designing and improving business models and propositions for new
markets and new approaches.
3 Pricing: developing value based pricing strategies that reflect what customers are willing
to pay.
They work on concrete marketing themes such as brand positioning, proposition
development and optimisation, customer promises, customer journey design, pricing
psychology and digitisation of customer contact.
They work for well known brands in many sectors, such as tech, telco and media, financial
services, health, consumer goods, mobility and logistics, energy and industrial goods and
services. This shows that the concepts in the lecture are broadly applicable across
industries.
Company culture is also important. The House of Marketing emphasises teamwork, fun, and
a strong internal community. This is relevant because strong marketing work often requires
close collaboration between consultants, clients and internal teams.
, 2 Brand positioning in practice
Brand positioning is about deciding what you want customers to think and feel when they
think of your brand. It links the long term business strategy to all daily marketing actions. In
the lecture, brand positioning is explained using five core principles.
2.1 Principle 1 – A strong brand is one of the most valuable assets of your organisation
A strong brand is described as one of the most important assets a company can have. The
lecture shows a hierarchy of positioning with three levels.
1 Business positioning: this is about where the company plays. It covers questions like: in
which markets do we want to compete, and how many brands do we need to be successful.
This is usually captured in brand architecture and long term strategy.
2 Brand positioning: this is about how to win. It defines what you want customers to think
and feel when they think of the brand. It is a long term brand position that should guide all
communication and behaviour.
3 Operating positioning: this is about how to bring the positioning to life. It includes what
the company tells, shows and does in campaigns, channels and sales. It can include short
term and long term actions but always aligned with the chosen brand positioning.
The lecture warns against the commodity trap. In a commodity trap, price becomes the only
decision criterion, competitors look very similar, and companies feel forced to lower prices
to maintain volume. This leads to increasing competition and the loss of distinctiveness. A
strong brand helps avoid this trap because it creates reasons to choose your brand beyond
price.
The slides show that many brands start as a commodity and focus on branding only later.
Louis Vuitton is mentioned as an example. Originally it sold functional luggage, but through
strong branding it became a luxury icon. This example illustrates how moving from
commodity to strong brand can create enormous brand equity.
Brand equity is the extra value created by the brand on top of the basic product. The lecture
expresses this as:
Brand minus Commodity equals Brand Equity.
This formula shows that brand equity is the difference between a simple product and a
branded product that customers value more.
Two further advantages of a strong brand are highlighted.
1 A strong brand provides direction and helps attract talent. It guides strategic and tactical
choices and makes the company more attractive on the labour market.
2 A strong brand provides access to new markets. Successful brands such as Apple, Google
and Coolblue now earn much of their profits in categories that are different from where
they started. The brand reputation makes it easier to enter new areas.
These notes summarise the guest lecture on Marketing Strategy by The House of Marketing.
They are written for exam revision, keep the original structure of the lecture, and use the
original English terminology for key concepts.
1 Who are we – The House of Marketing
The House of Marketing is a consulting company that helps organisations develop strong
value propositions. They work across the Benelux and combine consulting and interim
services. Their focus is to help companies create products and services that customers
really value and are willing to pay for.
Key activities of The House of Marketing are:
1 Strategy: helping companies make the right choices about markets, brands and long term
direction.
2 Value proposition: designing and improving business models and propositions for new
markets and new approaches.
3 Pricing: developing value based pricing strategies that reflect what customers are willing
to pay.
They work on concrete marketing themes such as brand positioning, proposition
development and optimisation, customer promises, customer journey design, pricing
psychology and digitisation of customer contact.
They work for well known brands in many sectors, such as tech, telco and media, financial
services, health, consumer goods, mobility and logistics, energy and industrial goods and
services. This shows that the concepts in the lecture are broadly applicable across
industries.
Company culture is also important. The House of Marketing emphasises teamwork, fun, and
a strong internal community. This is relevant because strong marketing work often requires
close collaboration between consultants, clients and internal teams.
, 2 Brand positioning in practice
Brand positioning is about deciding what you want customers to think and feel when they
think of your brand. It links the long term business strategy to all daily marketing actions. In
the lecture, brand positioning is explained using five core principles.
2.1 Principle 1 – A strong brand is one of the most valuable assets of your organisation
A strong brand is described as one of the most important assets a company can have. The
lecture shows a hierarchy of positioning with three levels.
1 Business positioning: this is about where the company plays. It covers questions like: in
which markets do we want to compete, and how many brands do we need to be successful.
This is usually captured in brand architecture and long term strategy.
2 Brand positioning: this is about how to win. It defines what you want customers to think
and feel when they think of the brand. It is a long term brand position that should guide all
communication and behaviour.
3 Operating positioning: this is about how to bring the positioning to life. It includes what
the company tells, shows and does in campaigns, channels and sales. It can include short
term and long term actions but always aligned with the chosen brand positioning.
The lecture warns against the commodity trap. In a commodity trap, price becomes the only
decision criterion, competitors look very similar, and companies feel forced to lower prices
to maintain volume. This leads to increasing competition and the loss of distinctiveness. A
strong brand helps avoid this trap because it creates reasons to choose your brand beyond
price.
The slides show that many brands start as a commodity and focus on branding only later.
Louis Vuitton is mentioned as an example. Originally it sold functional luggage, but through
strong branding it became a luxury icon. This example illustrates how moving from
commodity to strong brand can create enormous brand equity.
Brand equity is the extra value created by the brand on top of the basic product. The lecture
expresses this as:
Brand minus Commodity equals Brand Equity.
This formula shows that brand equity is the difference between a simple product and a
branded product that customers value more.
Two further advantages of a strong brand are highlighted.
1 A strong brand provides direction and helps attract talent. It guides strategic and tactical
choices and makes the company more attractive on the labour market.
2 A strong brand provides access to new markets. Successful brands such as Apple, Google
and Coolblue now earn much of their profits in categories that are different from where
they started. The brand reputation makes it easier to enter new areas.
