Lambda: Marketing an “Ultra-Premium” Olive Oil

“Too many brands were claiming the extra virgin olive oil description but were not of special quality. I love olive oil and I wanted to do something more, to create and reinvent the way people view it,” says Giorgos Kolliopoulos who developed Lambda according to "The Olive Oil Times" through his luxury food and beverage company Speiron, based in Athens, Greece. Available since 2007, Lambda remains the priciest ultra premium labeled brand on the market, consistently maintaining benchmark qualities that rate better than extra virgin standards.

From a theoretical point of view, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. American Marketing Association

Clearly, a strategic brand perspective requires Marketing managers to be clear about what role brands play for the company in creating customer and share-holder value.

FOR BUYERS, BRANDS CAN:

1) Reduce customer search costs by identifying products quickly and accurately,
2) Reduce the buyer’s perceived risk by providing an assurance of quality and consistency (which may then be transferred to new products),
3) Reduce the social and psychological risks associated with owning and using the “wrong” product by providing psychological rewards for purchasing brands that symbolize status and prestige.
Marketing Science Institute Report No. 97-422, 1997

FOR SELLERS, BRANDS CAN FACILITATE:

1) Repeat purchases that enhance the company’s financial performance because the brand enables the customer to identify and re-identify the product compared to alternatives,
2) The introduction of new products, because the customer is familiar with the brand from previous buying experience,
3) Promotional effectiveness by providing a point of focus, premium pricing by creating a basic level of differentiation compared to competitors,
4) Market segmentation by communicating a coherent message to the target audience, telling them for whom the brand is intended and for whom it is not,
5) Brand loyalty, of particular importance in product categories where loyal buying is an important feature of buying behavior.
Marketing Science Institute Report No. 97-422, 1997