Premium — Ramey’s Definition

At Ramey, we aspire to be the leading brand strategy and performance marketing firm for premium
brands.

A question I’m often asked is,“how do you define a premium brand?”

Premium brands are those brands that are often the leaders in their category. They may not account for much of the category’s volume, but they do account for the lion’s share of category profits. Not all premium brands have to necessarily be luxury goods or have a high price tag. We have clients who offer premium services. We have clients who excel in whatever category that they operate in.

And over time, we have been able to map those clients across four different spheres.

One sphere is quality. This is probably the area that most people identify with premium goods: you make a quality good or offer a quality service that is recognized as being among the best. Think of brands that are celebrated for their level of craftsmanship. They represent best-in-class.

Another is missional: your brand or organization really stands for something above and beyond the product itself. It might be in the level of service you offer or the commitment to the communities you serve. Buy a pair of our shoes and we’ll donate another pair to someone in need.

Our third sphere is innovation: when clients are really focused on constantly building the better product. We have a client with countless patents on cookware alone. They are constantly disrupting the category and pushing the envelope to invent better products through game-changing technology.

Finally, there is the sphere of stature, where the brand is recognized as being the best of the best among consumers. These clients lead their category in market share, affinity, and financial performance. It often takes some time to generate stature, but we’re fortunate that many of our clients score well in this sphere.

What’s really interesting is that some clients are mapped where two or more of the spheres overlap. Our goal is to help our clients get to the “heart” of the sphere map, where all four spheres overlap and the brand is considered in the strongest position.

We know this to be true: it is possible for a brand to break out of the commodity trap, ladder-up to a premium position in their category, and significantly drive more profits along the way.