White paper that shows how to drive profits through your brand. It looks at the P&L and shows the four areas you can use to drive increased profits, whether it's pricing, costs, share or market size. Step by step it shows how to leverage as well as potential watch outs at each step. It also shows how the power of a Beloved Brand can drive more profit. Feel free to download and share with others.

1. WHITE HOW TO DRIVE PROFIT THROUGH
PAPER
YOUR BRAND
Graham Robertson | President of Beloved Brands Inc.

2. Table of Contents
Page
The Love for Brands 3
Using price as a Weapon 4
Managing Costs 5
Going After Share 5
Increasing the Size of the Market 6
How a Beloved Brand is More Profitable 7
About Beloved Brands Inc. 8
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

3. The more loved the brand, the more powerful the brand and in
turn the higher growth and profit it can generate.
A beloved brand can use the connection with their consumers as a source of power. The tighter the connection to
consumers, the more loved the brand. As a brand becomes more loved, it becomes more powerful, and is able to wield
that power onto all aspects of the market. A Beloved Brand can entice consumers to keep coming back, it can fight off
competitors to win with key
targets, it can generate earned
media easier, it can challenge
suppliers to come back with
lower costs and it leverage its
positional power to gain
preferential treatment with real
estate owners, government or
tour operators. Even employees
would rather work for a
powerful beloved brand than an
indifferent brand.
Brands move along a “LOVE
CURVE” going from Indifferent
to Like It to Love It, and then
they’ll make it their Brand for
Life. The farther along the curve,
the more connected to the
brand. The “Brand Love Curve”
can be linked to the Brand
Funnel which becomes the
underlying scoreboard. You can
use the funnel to map out the buying process for the consumer, identifying both strategy and tactics to move them
along the funnel towards being more loved. Used properly, the Power of the Brand can help drive the P&L with four
important levers: driving increased price, lowering costs, increasing share, creating new markets. As a result, a powerful
connected brand is much more efficient. And that efficiency can leverage the P&L to invest back in the brand’s
connectivity and drive Profit and over the long run create value for the Brand.
As a Brand Leader looks to how to drive their Brand through the
P&L, there are four ways the Brand Leader can drive profits,
price, costs, share and market size.
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

4. Using price as a weapon to drive Brand Value. It can be a price change, up or
down, or it could be trying to get consumers to trade up or trade down.
 Price Increase: You can do a price increase if the market or brand allows you. It likely has to be based on passing
along cost increases. Factors that help are whether you are a healthy brand or it’s a healthy market as well as the
power of your brand vs.
competition and channel.
 Price Decrease: Used
when fighting off
competitor, if you need to
react to a sluggish
economy or channel
pressure. Another reason
to decrease price is if you
have a competitive
advantage around cost,
whether that’s
manufacturing, materials
or distribution.
There are watch outs for
price changes. It’s difficult to
execute especially if it has to
go through retailers. You
need to understand power
relationships–how powerful
are the retailers. Many times,
price changes are scrutinized
so badly by retailers that you
must have proof of why you are doing it. It’s likely your Competitors will over-react. So your assumptions you used to go
with the price increase will change right after. And finally, it’s not easy to change back.
 Trading Up: If you have in a range of products, sometimes it can be beneficial to get consumers to trade up. Can you
carve out a meaningful difference to create a second tier that goes beyond your current brand? Do your brand
image/ratings allow it?
 Trading Down: Risky, but you see un-served market, with minimal damage to image/reputation of the brand. In a
tough economy, it might be better to create a value set of products rather than lower the price on your main
products.
Beloved Brands seem more capable at driving profits through pricing, but they also are careful to ensure the premium
does not become excessive to create backlash. There are a few watch outs around trying to trade up or down: Premium
skus can feel orphaned at retail world—on the shelf or missing ads or displays. Managing multiple price levels can be
difficult—what to support, price differences etc. For all the effort you go to, make sure your margins stay consistently
strong through the trading up or down. Be careful that you don’t lose focus on your core business. You can’t be all things
to everyone. The final concern is what it does your Brand’s image, especially risky when trading downward.
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

5. Managing cost as a weapon to enhance the Brand’s Value. It can
be either your cost of goods or the potential selling costs.
 Cost of Goods Decreases: You are able to use the power of your brand to drive power over your suppliers; you find
cheaper potential raw materials, process improvement or find off-shore manufacturing.
 Cost of Goods Increases: Make sure that you manage the COGs as they increase. Watch out for suppliers trying to
pass along costs. But realize that with new technology, investing in brand’s improved image, going after premium
markets, offering new benefit or a format change, that cost of good increases could be a reality.
The watch outs with managing costs: with cuts, make sure the product change is not significantly noticeable. You should
understand any potential impact in the eyes of your consumer on your brand’s performance and image. Can the P&L
cover these costs, either increased sales or efficiency elsewhere? Managing your margin % is crucial to the long-term
success of your brand.
 Selling Cost Decrease: To counter changes in the P&L (price, volume or cost), it’s very tempting to look to short-term
P&L management or look at changes in go-to-market model. Where a brand stands on the product life cycle or how
loved the brand is can really impact the selling costs. Even though we think that Beloved Brands have endless
spending, they actually likely have a lower investment to sales ratio.
 Selling Cost Increase: When you’re in Investment mode, defensive position trying to hold share against an aggressive
competitor or when you see a proven payback in higher sales–with corresponding margins.
Always be in an ROI mindset: Manage your marketing costs as though every DOLLAR has to efficiently drive sales. Realize
that short-term cuts can carry longer term impact. Competitive reaction can influence the impact of investment stance–
like a price change, your competitor might over-react to your increases in spending.
Externally, the Share and Volume game are traditional tools for brand.
Either stealing other users or getting current users to use more.
 Offensive Share Gains: Use it when you have a significant Competitive Advantage or you see untapped needs in the
market. Or opportunistic, use first mover advantage on new technology.
 Defensive Share Stance: Hold the fort until you can catch up on technology, maintain profitability, loyal base of
followers needs protecting.
Be careful when trying to gain share. A Beloved Brand has a drawing power where it does gain share without having to
use attack modes. Attacking competitors can be difficult. It could just become a spend escalation with both brands just
going at it. After a share war that’s not based on a substantive reasoning (eg. technology change), there might end up
with no winners, just losers. Many times, the channel will try to play one competitor against another for their own gain.
Watch out what consumers you target in a competitive battle: some may just come in because of the lower price and go
back to their usual brand.
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

6.  Get Current Users to Use More: When there is an opportunity to turn loyal users into creating a potential routine.
Changing behaviours is more difficult than enticing trial. It’s a good strategy to use, when your there’s real benefit to
your consumer using more. It’s hard to just get them to use more without a real reason.
There has to be a real benefit connected to using more or it might look hollow/shallow. Driving routines is a challenge.
Even with “lifesaving” medicines, the biggest issue is compliance. Find something in their current life to help either
ground it or latch onto. When I worked on Listerine, people only used mouthwash 20-30 times a year compared to 700+
brushing occasions. So we focused on connecting rinsing with Listerine to the twice daily brushing routine.
Increase the Size of Market by Finding New Users or Creating New Uses.
 Find New Users: When there is an untapped or under-served need. There could be a significant changing
demographic that impacts your base. Or you are able to translate/transfer your reputation to a new user group.
There should be something within your product/brand that helps fuel the brand post trial. Trial without repeat,
means you’ll get the spike but then bust. Substantial investment required. Don’t let it distract from protecting the
base loyal users.
 Create New Uses: Format Line Extensions that take your experience or name elsewhere. Able to leverage same
benefit in convenient “on the go” offering. Make sure current brand is in order before you divert attention, funding
and focus on expansion area. Investment needed, could divert from spend on base business. Be careful because the
legendary stories (Arm and Hammer) don’t come along as much as we hope.
Beloved Brands drive strong sales growth, which helps the P&L work harder and more efficiently.
1. Higher volume helps you exert pressure on costs. That could be supply costs, operations costs, distribution over even
media costs.
2. Get More for Less From the Trade. You can begin exerting power over the sales channels to your advantage–
trimming variable trade costs with retailers while demanding more display, prime real estate, coop advertising and
more control over pricing. ROI on trade programs.
3. Smarter More Efficient Management: manage your inventories, meet customer expectations, control pricing and
drive cheaper costs.
4. Growth means you start outgrowing any fixed costs. This includes start-up costs, sales force, product plants or R&D
costs.
5. Lower Cost of Capital: More certainty means lower risk and you can re-invest, knowing the ROI will be quicker and
stronger.
How the Love for a Brand Impacts on Profitability
You should be looking at your business through the lens of your brand.Yes, the brand promise sets up how the external
community views your brand whether that’s consumers, customers or key influencers. It’s the consistency in delivering
the promise that connects consumers with your brand, both emotionally and rationally, letting it become a part of their
lives. But equally so, brand becomes an internal beacon to help guide behaviour, decisions, action, structure and the
formation of a culture. You should drive your growth and profitability through your brand, with a focus on driving share,
enhancing price while managing costs and finding new markets.
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

7. Consumer’s love is a source of power, changing the dynamic versus the channel, suppliers,
competitors and even the consumers.
Consumers feel more and think less. It’s a part of them. They are fans, craving the brand and build it into their life.
They can’t live without the brand. It becomes easier to charge consumers a premium for your brand. You can drive
more sales per consumer creating a routine; you can easily convert them to a broader portfolio of your brands with
new product launches.
The Channel needs the brand, caters to them, cannot stand up to them. With a beloved brand, it becomes well
known that consumers would switch customers before switching brands. This leaves the channel less powerful in
negotiations and will give the beloved brand preferential treatment. Price increases, lower trade percentages, trade
support and success of new launches all impact the P&L positively.
Suppliers are at the mercy of the brand. In pure economics, the higher volumes give you efficiencies to drive down
costs and increase your margins. But even more, suppliers build their business completely around the brand and
can’t get out. Pushing the suppliers to cut costs has a big impact on COGs.
Agencies will want to be part of the brand. Program costs should be more efficient not just on the volume but on
agencies reducing their own margins/pricing in order to have your brand on their client roster. At the agency, the
best creative people will want to work on the beloved brand. This can positively impact program costs—including
lower fees, production costs or access to better talent.
It becomes hard for New Brands to break through. New brand starts in the rational position making it difficult to
break the emotional bond the Beloved Brand has created. It has to be significantly better to even gain consideration
because the consumer isn’t as rational as they are emotional in their decision making. The Beloved Brand can
maintain their share by holding on to the very loyal base of consumers.
No real Competitive Substitutes can match. It becomes less about product and more about connection and how
consumer feels though the brand. The Beloved Brand has a Monopoly on feelings. Takes away ability to substitute to
compete. It’s less about rational points of difference, even going beyond the emotional differences that can be
expressed. It becomes about the experience and the perceptions. The Beloved Brand can easily steal share, drive
users to use more and even create new uses that directly impact the competitors within the scope of the Beloved
Brand.
Special Treatment from Earned and influenced Media. Traditional Media is more likely to give lower rates based on
volume. But they’ll look for alternative sponsorship or special arrangements for a brand that is loved. They see the
benefits of association and will push to have that brand part of their brand. With the news media, the moves of
Beloved Brand become newsworthy and will have an easier time gaining a return on a PR push. Within the social
media area, Beloved Brands are more likely to be liked, shared or searched. This gives the Beloved Brand a much
more efficient spending to sales ratios.
Most marketers will tell you that branding is about positioning. I think
positioning is a means to driving growth and making money.
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com

8. About Beloved Brands Inc.
I started Beloved Brands Inc. to help your brand realize its full potential value
by generating more love for your brand.
The biggest difference that I offer is that I will challenge your team to come up with new ideas that will
drive real growth. I have walked a mile in your shoes. I am a former business leader with a reputation for
finding growth where others could not, whether it’s a turnaround, re-positioning, new product launch or
sustaining success. With my experience, I’ll be able to get you and your team to a strategic action
plan that will set your brand up to win in the market.
I bring a unique
perspective: I believe the
more loved the brand, the
more valuable is the brand.
Brands move along
a Brand Love Curve, going from Indifferent to Like It
to Love It and finally to the Beloved Brand status. It is
the tight bond created between a brand and its
consumers that can be used as a source of power to
drive further growth and profits.
Brands can find themselves stuck at a point on the
curve, uncertain how to get more from their brand. I
will help unleash the power of your brand by finding
aUnique Selling Proposition that best matches the
needs of your consumers with your brand’s assets.
Together, we’ll develop strategies that will make
your brand become a more beloved brand and in
turn a more powerful and more profitable brand.
The areas where I can help you the most are:
 Strategic Planning: I will help your team to develop a Brand Plan with vision, mission, objectives, strategies and tactics. I will
help you to discover a Unique Selling Proposition that matches up the needs of your consumers against your brand assets. The
plan and new positioning will separate you from your competitors and set you up to win in the market.
 Marketing Training: I know I can make your team better, because I have done it my entire career. You can get a training
program customized for your team, which will meet specific needs or adjusted to any level of your team. I also provide
coaching at the brand team level or personalized one-on-ones for key individuals. The Marketing Training program includes:
1. Strategic Thinking
2. Brand Plans
3. Developing Creative Briefs
4. Driving Profits through your Brand
5. P&L and Forecasting Management
6. Judging Advertising Creative
7. Media Planning
8. Marketing Careers
The more loved the Brand, the More Valuable the Brand Visit the blog at beloved-brands.com