Once companies establish differentiation that is
meaningful to consumers, they must create brand
knowledge: awareness about the brand and its image.
Traditionally, this entailed significant financial
investment in advertising and promotion budgets in
order to garner marketplace notice. Heavy financial
backing was particularly importantin the early stages
of the product life cycle. This created a high barrier
to entry for new brands; however, once they were
established, it protected them in turn by building a
barrier against upstart brands and effectively shut
those out of competition for the top spots. This
underscored a need for heavy investment in branding,
but one which could only be justified if it provided
proportionalreturnsforthe dominant brands over
a long time span later in the product life cycle.