MARY KYRIAKIDI: TRUE DISTINCTIVENESS IS RARE. BUT WHEN A BRAND FINDS IT, IT REALLY PAYS OFF

29. 7. 2026 | 3 min read The debate over whether there is any real differentiation between brands at all was reignited this year at Cannes Lions, where Byron Sharp stated that a decade of research had failed to identify any truly differentiated brands from the consumers’ perspective. Brand differentiation can be measured. And it pays off. Mary Kyriakidi, Global Thought Leadership Director at Kantar, responds to this claim with data from the BrandZ database. She shows that perceived differentiation has a concrete, measurable impact on how a brand performs. It is therefore not merely an abstract marketing concept. What differentiation does for business Perceived distinctiveness accounts for roughly half of the reason why a brand can command a higher price. Brand awareness alone contributes only about 6 per cent to this. Customers therefore do not reward brands simply for being familiar with them. Above all, they reward those brands that hold a clear and unique meaning for them.

WHAT MARKETERS CAN LEARN FROM BRANDS CONNECTING WITH GEN Z

12. 9. 2025 | 4 min read Following the publication of Collage Group’s “2025 State of Brand Cultural Fluency” report, the cultural intelligence data company also looked at which brands are most resonant with Gen Z, and which brands are more differentiated in appealing to the generation (compared to consumers overall).

STUDY: BRANDS ARE DROWNING IN A SEA OF SAMENESS, THEY CAN SURPRISE ONLY A THIRD OF PEOPLE

30. 3. 2022 | 3 min read Only a third of Czech consumers can recall a unique brand, according to a study by Ogilvy Consulting and GroupM.