Optimising distribution, customer journeys, range, pack, pricing and promotions can win your brand 7x more buyers versus those present in only of buying occasions, according to Kantar.

The brand insights group has launched the 'Blueprint for Brand Growth', an analysis of over 6.5 billion global attitudinal and shopper data points from the past decade. The Blueprint is the product of a collaborative effort between Kantar's experts, industry leaders, and advanced analytics work, leveraging Kantar’s unique BrandZ and Worldpanel data assets.

The analysis reveals brands grow by being meaningfully different to more people, commanding 5X market penetration today and having an advantage in penetration growth over the next two years.

To get there, Kantar recommended marketers activate three Growth Accelerators: Predispose More People, Be More Present, and Find New Space.

Predisposing more people means using creativity, advertising and experience to build meaningful difference as well as mental availability for your brand. When optimally executed, this drives 9X higher volume share, 2X higher average selling price, and a 4X likelihood of growing share in the future, according to Kantar data.

Being more present, meanwhile, is about optimising distribution, customer journey, range, pack, pricing and promotions. This wins 7X more buyers vs those present in only half of buying occasions, Kantar stated.

The third must is to find new space. Innovation focused on identifying incremental spaces (motivations, occasions, tangential categories and services) doubles a brand’s chance of growth, Kantar said. Increasing the number of usage occasions by just 10% results in revenue growth of +17%, it found

Overall, Kantar’s analysis underscores the role of differentiation – not just distinctiveness – in forging strong mental connections between consumers and brands as well as defending pricing power. While market penetration growth is crucial, solely focusing on this is insufficient to holistically drive sustainable brand, revenue and margin growth, the group argued.

"Our newly revealed Growth Accelerators will, instinctively, feel familiar to CMOs. They are now, though, underpinned with new quantifiable evidence of their impact on brand and revenue growth. These are universal truths that every brand can use to focus their strategy and secure the budget for their highest impact activities," said Kantar’s EVP of Thought Leadership and Blueprint project lead, Jane Ostler.

Heineken, a long-term collaborator with Kantar, has been working on the brand guidance system and looking at meaningful differentiation for a number of years.

"This has helped us understand exactly how we can drive growth on our brands," said Global Consumer & Markets Insights Director at Heineken, Tony Costella. "Using the Meaningful Different and Salient Framework, we've been able to really get underneath the drivers of meaningful differentiation to understand and connect with certain consumer groups that deliver brand growth across different markets."