Expert Roundtable: The Brand vs. Demand Marketing Dilemma

For over a decade, the role of the marketing organization has undergone a continuous evolution. It has become a growth engine with the expectation to drive greater revenue for existing businesses while also identifying, sizing and pursuing new sources of growth.  

Under intense competition, businesses in Asia and across the world are faced with an urgent need to identify new growth pathways within saturated markets. Meanwhile, the pressure for financial performance, combined with the rise of digital technologies and AI, as well as the stronger capability to quantify results in demand marketing, have made the tension between long-term brand building and short-term demand generation increasingly evident. 

Today’s marketers are being asked to do more with less. Balancing long-term brand building with short-term demand generation has become a pressing issue.  

We interviewed three senior marketing experts from PepsiCo, Suntory Global Spirits, and WARC to share their insights about balancing brand and demand marketing: 

Yan Rives 
Marketing Director, Suntory Global Spirits 

Lizzie Li 
Consumer Insights Director, PepsiCo   

Jenny Chan
Editor, WARC

In today’s market, do brands today still need to communicate clear values or a point of view? 

Jenny: Amid fierce competition, brands need strong values more than ever to build a competitive edge. Consumers are reevaluating their consumption priorities and expect brands to align with their values. A brand’s attitude must not only stay true to its DNA but also keep pace with the times. Brands need to understand the differences between subcultures, ensure authenticity and differentiation, and express empathy and understanding toward consumers. 

Lizzie: I completely agree. Many brands today chase short-term performance but overlook the fact that short-term gains are built on long-term brand equity. Brands need to continuously reinforce and solidify their values to remain resilient in a fast-changing market. Simply put, short-term gains cannot exist without long-term brand building. 

Yan: I believe every brand needs a clear value proposition, but not every brand needs a point of view, which must be authentic. My take is: if you don’t have a genuine point of view, don’t fabricate one. We have seen numerous brands take stances on social issues but come across as insincere. If a brand truly has a set of core beliefs and knows how to bring them to life — in a way that is authentic and true to your DNA — that’s when it becomes a powerful brand strategy. 

What is your perspective on the strategy of dominating a specific sub-category for all relevant consumers, as opposed to initially focusing on a distinct group of target consumers? 

Jenny: These two approaches are complementary. On one hand, identifying and capturing a key group of consumers helps brands expand market share and build associations. On the other hand, focusing on sub-categories enhances brands’ competitiveness in specific sectors. However, brands need to establish multiple category entry points (CEPs), including emotional and occasional associations. By broadening these entry points, brands can more easily become the top choice in consumers’ minds. 

Yan: I think it’s important to align your strategy with the brand’s resources and market realities. In highly competitive environments where hundreds of brands vie for limited opportunities, it may be more reasonable for niche brands with limited resources to focus on winning with specific channels or consumer groups, rather than attempting to boil the ocean. Another factor to consider is whether your brand has the potential to gain unprompted advocacy — i.e., whether your customers already promote your brand on your behalf. This is often more effective in capturing niche audiences than large-scale advertising. 

Lizzie: I believe the increasingly niche sub-categories are the efforts of brands seeking growth when they have little choice in a saturated market. Truly sustainable growth requires balancing both types of strategies — starting with specific audiences and addressing their needs that are more universal before expanding to a wider audience, creating traction across different audience groups. This strategy combines focus with scalability. 

During an economic slowdown, when consumers are more cautious in their spending, how should brands adjust their marketing strategies? 

Yan: The answer to that question depends on what you’ve been doing in the past. If your sales have been mostly fueled by brand equity, you’ll be fine – think Hermès reporting surging growth quarter after quarter.  Cautious consumption is about searching for better value, which is not always equivalent to a lower price. The famous “lipstick effect” as well as the latest reports on China’s shopper behavior across various product groups, suggest that consumers want to reward or treat themselves even more when the future is no longer as certain as it used to be. 

Lizzie: Absolutely. The market is oversupplied and consumers are more rational, But rationality doesn’t mean they only care about functionality. If a brand only offers functional benefits, there are too many generic, white-labeled alternatives, making it impossible for brands to charge a premium. Therefore, brands increasingly need to solidify their core assets, build emotional connections with consumers, and create a competitive “moat” around the brand. For example, while there exist many cheaper alternatives to Uniqlo, its brand philosophy of “LifeWear” resonates deeply with consumers, who still choose to buy its products. 

Jenny: I’d like to add that even during a consumption downturn, brands shouldn’t rely solely on price cuts and discounts as a tactic, as this harms long-term brand loyalty. Consumers nowadays are reevaluating the balance between price, quality and service. The key question becomes: is your product truly worth its price? If the answer is yes, consumers will still find it valuable even during a downturn. 

What are the key challenges in integrating brand building and demand generation? What are the experiences of your organization?  

Yan: The key challenge is — and has always been — reaching the right balance in building physical and mental availability. At Suntory Global Spirits, we start by leaning on growth truths that are deeply integrated into our three-year and annual planning. Those truths provide directional guidelines on the split between demand creation and demand conversion, specific to brand life stage and nuances of the specific market. We deploy a cross-functional approach for course correction and continuous improvement, providing a forum to address topics beyond mere performance management, such as consumer feedback on innovation, challenges in specific channels, and the impact of marketing activities.  

Jenny: I think the biggest challenge is balancing short-term and long-term strategies. Treating brand building and demand generation as opposites limits overall marketing effectiveness. From company culture to budget allocation and creative processes, we need to “do both,” fundamentally shifting away from an either-or mindset. 

Lizzie: Integration of brand and demand is a very difficult challenge. It requires brands to create more comprehensive evaluation criteria — not just focusing on sales data but also tracking brand health. In terms of talents, besides specialists, we need more generalists. Marketing leaders also need more space for regular assessments and reflection. 

What role does consumer insight play in the marketing organization? 

Yan: Insight is a starting point for the work of marketers. Synthesizing insights into briefs or recommendations has become increasingly difficult as the number of sources has proliferated. It’s amazing how AI makes this process both easier and more complex at the same time. In a world of data abundance, qualified insights teams, strategists, as well as senior marketers who can foster high-quality judgment within the organization, are more important than ever. 

Lizzie: The insights department is a core capability of any organization, driving the shift from a manufacturer-centric view to a consumer-centric one. In a complex market, we need to cut through the noise, identify key insights and synthesize them to create tangible growth opportunities for the organization. Data alone doesn’t speak; its true value comes from human interpretation. Staying curious and adopting an outside-in perspective is essential to truly understanding consumer needs. 

Prophet’s research demonstrated that pitting brand against demand marketing limits  impact. Organizations that adopt an integrated approach are more likely to drive outstanding business results. We identified six key actions: 

• Ensuring brand and demand teams share strategy and focus on business outcomes 
• United by a passion for delivering against customer needs 
• Integration is not about compromise, but about being great at both, and combining creativity and logic to get there 
• The best organizations know it won’t be easy – they expect to fail sometimes but enjoy the ride 
• Thinking long and short-term at the same time with measurement systems that track both 
• Marketers are inside of, and part of, organization ecosystems working closely with CEOs, CFOs, CTOs and sales