Consistency, relevance, and a little magic: What durable brands get right

The piece identified the top 10 characteristics of the world’s (then) strongest brands and provided brands with a framework to grade their performance in each area. 

While the marketing landscape has shifted digitally, culturally, and commercially over the last 25 years, Keller’s core principles remain remarkably relevant. If anything, they’ve become even more critical as today’s most durable brands still tend to exhibit most or all of these characteristics. Many have simply evolved how they deliver on them, incorporating new platforms, consumer expectations, and technology along the way.

We revisited Keller’s attributes to see if they still hold true for durable brands today, and if the top brands from 2000 have proven their longevity.

Keller opened his report card with perhaps the most foundational trait of all: Great brands deliver what people actually want, both at a product level and emotionally, experientially, and even aspirationally. This is the bedrock of brand equity. But brands must anticipate customer intent, tailor experiences, and offer frictionless utility across touchpoints. In short: The experience is the product.

His example was Starbucks, which at the time had evolved from selling beans to creating a full-bodied experience. Customers returned for caffeine, plus the aroma, ambience, and sense of community.

Today, Starbucks is still widely viewed as a leader in experience-driven branding. But it’s not without pressure. The rise of independent cafés, inflationary backlash, and in-store automation have prompted questions about whether Starbucks has drifted from its original sensorial appeal. 

Still, Starbucks has doubled down on personalization, loyalty, and convenience. Its mobile app, beverage customization, and commitment to maintaining a “third space” between home and work suggest it’s still delivering on core consumer desires, adapted for modern behaviors.

Strong brands need to evolve with cultural and market changes while remaining anchored in what makes them them. Today, relevance is real-time. Attention spans are short, competition is abundant, and brands must adapt rapidly to trends, shifting values, identities, and expectations.

Keller’s example was Gillette, which built relevance over decades by investing in innovation and launching increasingly advanced razors. It paired this with aspirational messaging (e.g., “The best a man can get”) that adapted over time to reflect changing ideals of masculinity.

But Gillette has since faced some turbulence. While its products have advanced, it failed to anticipate deeper shifts in consumer behavior—namely, the rise of beards and the decline of daily shaving, especially among younger men. Add to that the disruption from direct-to-consumer competitors like Dollar Shave Club, and Gillette’s relevance took a hit. 

The brand attempted a repositioning with more inclusive, socially conscious messaging (remember the 2019 “We Believe” ad?), and expanded its product range to include beard grooming. While these steps intended to take the brand in the right direction, many felt they were reactive rather than visionary.

A more compelling modern example of staying relevant is Nike. Not only has Nike continuously evolved its product lines to reflect style, performance, and sustainability trends, but it’s also remained embedded in culture. 

For example, marking its return to the Super Bowl after 27 years, Nike’s 2025 “So Win” campaign spotlighted elite women athletes like Caitlin Clark and Sha’Carri Richardson. The ad confronted stereotypes and double standards faced by women in sports, quickly becoming the brand’s most-watched video on Instagram. By aligning with the rising prominence of women’s sports and addressing the surrounding conversations, Nike demonstrated its ability to tap into the larger cultural landscape in a thoughtful and reverent way.

Strong brands price based on what consumers believe the product or experience is worth, not just cost or competition. 

Keller used Procter & Gamble’s Cascade dishwasher detergent as an example. It briefly lowered costs by cutting corners on performance, and when that change was noticed (and attacked by competitors), it hurt the brand’s core promise and forced a reversal. On the flip side, Keller pointed to P&G’s successful shift to everyday low pricing across many product lines, where the perception of value remained intact because quality was maintained.

The lesson? Price should never undermine the brand’s promise.

In 2025, this principle still applies, but with greater complexity. Consumers now assess value on performance as well as sustainability, inclusivity, convenience, and ethics. Brands that try to extract margin without delivering meaningful differentiation risk quick backlash in a time when product reviews are a social media cornerstone.

Great positioning means occupying a specific, desirable niche and defending it over time through clear messaging, experiences, and product decisions. And in 2025, with categories blurring and new players emerging constantly, positioning must be sharper than ever.

Keller’s primary example was Visa, which took on American Express in the ’80s and ’90s not by mimicking it, but by carving out its own lane: universal acceptance. “Visa—it’s everywhere you want to be” became the essence of the brand.

Visa’s example remains impressively durable. Today, the brand continues to dominate by ubiquity and reliability. In an age of digital wallets, contactless payments, and crypto speculation, Visa has maintained its position as the default, trusted infrastructure for everyday commerce. It’s still “everywhere,” and it’s still deeply embedded in global consumer behavior. Its value doesn’t lie in flash, but in functioning seamlessly and being accepted without friction.

Unsurprisingly, another defining trait of strong brands is their consistency, or their strategic cohesion across time and touchpoints. Brands that veer too far off course in pursuit of short-term gains often pay a long-term price. 

Keller’s example, Michelob, fell victim to this. The company’s shifting of slogans eroded the brand’s identity, from “Weekends were made for Michelob” to “The night belongs to Michelob” to “Some days are better than others.” It wasn’t clear what the brand stood for, and sales plummeted.

In an age of infinite channels and touchpoints, consistency is both more important and more difficult to maintain. Brands have to adapt to new platforms and cultural conversations without compromising their DNA. 

Coca-Cola continues to be a masterclass in this balance. Its messaging has evolved from “Always Coca-Cola” to “Open Happiness” to today’s “Real Magic,” but the emotional throughlines of joy, refreshment, and connection have stayed intact. Its logo, color palette, tone, and experience remain instantly recognizable across packaging, social media, and global markets.

A coherent brand hierarchy is often invisible to consumers but critical to strategic success. Companies need a logical structure to manage multiple brands or sub-brands without cannibalizing or confusing the market.

Keller cited BMW’s model as exemplary: The 3, 5, and 7 Series clearly denote ascending tiers of price and luxury, while maintaining a unified brand promise of performance and precision. By contrast, General Motors’ overlapping brands and shared body designs in the 1980s blurred the distinctions between Pontiac, Buick, and Oldsmobile, confusing buyers and weakening equity.

This principle still holds today, as consumers expect sub-brands to feel distinct, yet coherent within the parent brand’s values and standards. 
Disney is a strong example. The parent brand remains synonymous with wholesome, family-friendly storytelling, while its acquired sub-brands like Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar retain their distinct voices and audiences. Disney’s streaming platform subtly reinforces this hierarchy: Titles are clearly housed under their respective franchises, making the architecture intuitive for both kids and adults.

Keller stressed that strong brands don’t rely on a single marketing tactic, but orchestrate a full suite of tools to create and reinforce brand meaning. His example was Coca-Cola, which, at the time, blended traditional advertising, sponsorships, packaging, and retail promotions to build an iconic brand.

This principle is more critical now than ever. Today’s marketing landscape is fragmented, fast-moving, and hyper-social. Brands must deploy a coordinated mix of paid, owned, earned, and experiential strategies to maintain relevance and recognition. Marketing is now a networked, omnichannel engine where everything needs to be in sync.

According to Keller, truly great brands are stewarded by people who understand their full meaning, rather than just how they want the brand to be perceived, but how it actually is perceived. He pointed to Bic’s misstep into perfumes as a classic case of brand misunderstanding: A company known for cheap disposables tried to enter a category defined by luxury and intimacy. The result was a disconnect that consumers rejected.

In today’s environment, that kind of brand detachment can be fatal and much faster. Consumers now have platforms to call out misalignment in real time. The brands that endure are those whose leaders listen actively, run ongoing sentiment analysis, and understand the emotional and cultural associations that consumers attach to them.

A strong example of this in action today is KFC. The brand has learned to fully embrace its quirky audience perception, leaning into its offbeat personality with gaming collabs, TikTok-friendly recipes, and playful stunts like chicken-scented merchandise. But that clarity came with some bumps. In 2009, KFC’s “Unthink” campaign attempted to reposition the brand as a healthier option alongside new menu items. But consumers didn’t want a reinvented KFC—they wanted a better version of the food and persona they already loved. 

Today, by leaning into indulgence, humor, and nostalgia, KFC has sharpened its identity and built stronger resonance with modern audiences. They’ve shown that knowing what you are (and what you’re not) is foundational to brand durability.

Keller emphasized that building a durable brand requires long-term investment. Cutting marketing or innovation budgets to boost short-term margins may temporarily improve financials, but risks eroding hard-won equity. His example was Shell, which had strong brand differentiation in the late 1970s, but let it erode after pulling back on advertising. By the 1990s, Shell was just another oil company in the eyes of consumers.

The warning still holds. Today’s brand landscape is volatile as attention spans are short, competition is global, and social sentiment can shift overnight. The brands that persist are those that remain committed to the long game, avoid knee-jerk reactions, and continue to fund equity-building even amid disruption.

eBay has weathered decades of digital transformation by consistently supporting its core brand positioning: the marketplace for value, rarity, and discovery. Even as competitors rose, eBay continued to invest in customer trust programs, seller tools, and a refreshed UX. Its recent focus on enthusiast communities (e.g., sneakers, collectibles, and pre-loved fashion) is backed by targeted marketing, not just platform tweaks.

The best brand managers build systems to track how customers feel instead of simply assuming. Keller described brand audits, tracking studies, and formal equity reports as critical tools to understand how a brand is performing and how consumers actually perceive it.

This is arguably the trait that has evolved the most. In 2000, brand tracking meant surveys and focus groups. In 2025, it means leveraging real-time data from search, social, CRM, product usage, subscriber churn, and even biometric UX testing. Brand health is a living, breathing dataset, and the strongest brands build feedback loops between data and decision-making.

Apple, for example, monitors its equity with precision. It tracks customer satisfaction post-purchase, brand favorability in key markets, and loyalty across product cycles. Its response to moments of criticism, such as “Bendgate,” or privacy concerns, often includes both technical improvements and messaging updates. Apple’s ability to spot a shift in sentiment and respond with clarity is a key reason it remains the most valuable brand in the world.

Ultimately, Keller’s point was that brands can’t be managed on instinct alone. Even the most iconic brands need a dashboard. And the best ones don’t just track awareness or recall—they monitor trust, meaning, and alignment with evolving customer expectations.

In the 25 years (or what feels like the blink of an eye) since Kevin Lane Keller introduced his Brand Report Card, its ten characteristics have remained an impressively durable lens for evaluating brand strength. In fact, they may be more relevant than ever.

As consumer expectations shift in real time, channels proliferate endlessly, and brand trust is fragile, the fundamentals Keller outlined (delivering real value, staying relevant, maintaining consistency, and investing in long-term equity) are still what separate the enduring from the expendable.

What’s changed is how those traits manifest in a society. Relevance now means aligning with both rapidly evolving culture and technology, as well as long-held values. Pricing strategy blends affordability with signaling purpose and worth. Marketing is less a broadcast and more a feedback loop. And understanding what a brand means to people requires empathy and analytics in equal measure.

Keller’s framework still provides the strategic blueprint. But today, durable brands must operationalize it at the speed of culture, across an ecosystem of touchpoints, with a deep understanding of what people want, often before they say it out loud.