Research covering 60,000 consumers across five markets finds that smaller brands can benefit from differentiation, revisiting the debate between marketing academics Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp at Cannes Lions 2026.
A study examining 246 brands across five markets has found that differentiation continues to play a role in brand growth, particularly for smaller businesses competing with established market leaders. The findings revisit an ongoing marketing debate over whether brands should focus on developing meaningful differences or strengthening recognition and mental availability.
The research follows a debate at Cannes Lions in June 2026, where marketing professors Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp discussed the importance of brand differentiation. While both agreed on several marketing principles, they remained divided over whether brands need to establish meaningful differences from competitors or primarily focus on building recognition and mental availability.
Conducted by brand research company Behavio, the October 2026 study analysed responses from 60,000 consumers across eight product categories. It examined how brand size, consumer perceptions and associations with specific customer needs influence purchasing behaviour.
The researchers, Vojtech Prokes and Jiri Boudal, found that brand size explained approximately 90% of consumer associations with brands. However, the remaining 10% revealed differences that could provide smaller competitors with opportunities to establish stronger market positions.
According to the study, challenger brands can benefit from developing associations with particular customer needs, especially where consumer perceptions are more open to change.
The researchers introduced the concept of "movability", referring to how readily consumers can associate a brand with a specific need or purchasing situation.
Their analysis found that building mental availability around certain needs could be 2.5 times easier than around others, indicating that the choice of brand positioning may influence marketing effectiveness.
The findings also suggested that differentiation and distinctiveness contribute differently depending on brand size.
For smaller and mid-sized brands, stronger associations with specific customer needs were linked to greater awareness and improved conversion from awareness to purchasing.
Larger brands, meanwhile, benefited more from maintaining widespread recognition and associations with mainstream category needs.
The study also examined whether brands could grow primarily through distinctive assets, including recognisable logos, colours and advertising, without developing stronger associations with particular customer requirements.
Only two of the 246 brands examined came close to demonstrating this pattern, according to the researchers.
Another finding concerned how differentiation changes as brands expand. As challenger brands gain market share, their growing presence can begin to explain associations that initially distinguished them from competitors.
Consequently, research conducted at a single point in time may underestimate differentiation's contribution during earlier growth stages.
The researchers recommended that brand tracking studies account for market share when evaluating consumer perceptions rather than treating stronger brand associations as independent evidence of differentiation.
The findings suggest that marketing strategies may need to consider brand size, competitive conditions and customer needs when balancing differentiation with broader brand recognition.
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