Achieving sustainable competitive advantage through brand makeover

Abstract

Limited theoretical support on establishing a brand as a source of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) has impaired the idea of strengthening brands for SCA. Acknowledging brands as assets and exploring brand makeover strategies could be helpful for an organisation to create and sustain a competitive advantage. This paper aims at proposing and cementing this view about brands and explores various strategies for brands to enjoy competitive advantage. An extensive literature review has been carried out to build associations between a brand and resulting SCA, and a theoretical classification that can encapsulate all possible brand makeover strategies has been proposed by analysing various facets of brands, known as brand elements. Firms must ensure that brands undergo a makeover regularly in order to sustain this competitive advantage. Brand makeover strategies will help marketing managers to secure and exploit brands as an asset in the long term and in a profitable way.