In the battle of Product Marketing vs. Brand Marketing, who wins?

One of my favorite classes at Kellogg was on Marketing Strategy.  My markstrat professor, Tim Calkins, has a blog I follow.  He recently posted an article in which he talks about his experience buying a new car and how the consideration set and the final decision were all largely driven by brand.  That makes a lot of sense to me and is very much in line with my car buying experience.  But in most cases, brand is only one criteria of the purchase decision.  In today's age, factors like content, reviews, referrals etc. are becoming equally influential. I think there are three scenarios when brand becomes secondary in determining the purchase decision.

1. One-time vs. repeat purchase: Brand can trump experience when something is a one-time purchase vs. a long term relationship. Think cars, luxury brand purses, large appliances. However, when it comes to products that are purchased with more frequency, in most cases, a positive brand association can get a product in the consideration set but experience will determine the purchase outcome much more so than brand.

I can get past a crappy experience at a car dealer because in all likelihood, I will not be going back there for a very long time.  But when it comes to something like buying groceries or health and wellness products, I think companies should pay as much attention to (and spend as much money on) creating a frictionless path to purchase.  Uber, Airbnb are some companies that come to mind that have succeeded by doing this REALLY well.

2. Essential vs. non-essential products: Another aspect to keep in mind is how essential the product in question is. I spend a lot of time reading book reviews before I buy a book.  A few bad reviews can easily sway my decision when it comes to buying the book.  At the end of the day, if I didn't find the right one, I can easily walk away from buying a book.  On the other hand, I have almost never idly shopped for a car.  I've only shopped when I absolutely need to buy one and it would have to be reviews with something catastrophic to discourage me from making the purchase. In other words, in non-essential categories like books or coffee makers, in my personal experience, reviews become paramount in the purchase decision.

3. Quantity of choices: Last but not the least, when your product is one of five or six, it feels like brand plays a huge role. But when your customers have a choice amongst hundreds or thousands of different products, referrals, reviews, social media etc. start becoming increasingly important. This is especially true when it comes to categories like beauty or apparel.  There are dozens of shades of bright pink lipstick out there.  And there are some brands I gravitate towards, but the lipsticks I buy are overwhelmingly those where I can find a picture of someone with my skin color wearing them - regardless of brand.  Similarly, I can find hundreds of denim skirts with a simple Google Search.  The skirt I will most likely order is the one where someone my height and weight shares the size that fits them the best.  In my experience, influencer marketing, more than brand, seems to drive a lot of purchases in the beauty and apparel categories.

My point here is simple.  Brand value is not dead.  It is definitely important to get you a seat at the table.  And if, for example, two products had the same ratings AND reviews AND price, the stronger brand will always win.  But, everything is rarely equal and today's customers look for things a great brand marketing strategy will not solve for. Product marketing will continue becoming increasingly important in purchase decisions, especially in crowded marketplaces where customers have a lot of choice.