Dave Aaker: Brand Strategies For Market Leadership with The Father of Modern Branding | E187

Think about some of the most successful brands in the business: Amazon, Tesla, Etsy… the list goes on. They all have certain qualities in common: they took a unique approach to an existing category of products and services and they continued to innovate and grow their brand to meet the changing needs of their customers.  When it comes to developing your brand, there is no one better to learn from than David Aaker. David is a brand consultant and strategist who is known as the “Father of Modern Branding.” His book, Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, was named among the "Ten Marketing Books You Should Have Read" by Advertising Age in 2011 and named one of the top 3 marketing books of the year by Strategy and Business.  In this episode of YAP, David and Hala talk about how to build brand loyalty and keep your brand relevant. He explained how to dominate subsections of existing product categories rather than trying to build entirely new ones and gave examples of businesses that are dominating their industries. They talked about how the digital age is affecting the process of product innovation and how to elevate your brand by aligning it with a mission.  Topics Include: - The problem with the BDG model of strategy  - The pillars of the Aaker Model  - What is brand loyalty?  - Brand relevance  - How to lose relevance  - David’s latest book - What is a game-changing subcategory?  - Which businesses are properly dominating their industries?  - Must-haves vs. parody must-haves - Finding the right subcategory  - Creating barriers for your competition  - Disruptive innovation - The digital age’s impact on subcategory growth - Elevating your brand by connecting it with a higher purpose  - David’s secret to profiting in life - And other topics… David Aaker is a brand strategist who is known as the Father of Modern Branding. He serves as Vice-Chair at Prophet, which helps clients grow in the face of disruption. David is an active branding consultant, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business and UC Ber