Landor Associates has just published their top 10 “Breakaway Brands” for 2012 and the list isn’t too surprising. Facebook leads off followed by Keurig, Skype, Amazon, Vizio, Samsung, YouTube, Netflix, the US Marine Corps, and Apple. (This study is published in Forbes each year. Link here.)

It gets more interesting in the “Brands to Watch” list. Leading the three “Brands to Watch” is Atomic client Kobalt Tools (followed by Foster Farms and Symantec/Norton).

Did That Really Say Kobalt Tools? That’s right. Hanging in there amongst these technology superstars and food brands is Lowe’s private label brand for tools. The Kobalt presence becomes even more interesting after we note a few specifics:

Kobalt Tools is the only private label brand in the bunch. And, aside from the Marine Corps, it’s the only non-tech and non-food brand in the bunch.

While the article discusses only Kobalt’s NASCAR connection, the Kobalt reality includes far more pieces than just that one element.

Supporting superb merchandising and other brand marketing work, Kobalt is being driven heavily by that lowly medium of Direct Response Television (DRTV).

Brand Progress Comes Through Many Parts. A tremendous number of things come together to create this kind of brand power. And we’re glad we’ve been able to do our part.

One very important reality that is missed far too often in the brand literature: A major part of this growth comes because Kobalt Brand products are of superb quality and they deliver excellent, meaningful innovations.

Kudo’s to the entire team at Lowe’s. This is impressive brand growth and it is the result of a lot of smart choices and hard work.

DRTV Deserves a Place at the Table. I’ve noted elsewhere that I think it’s time for DRTV to take it’s place at the brand table among other forms of advertising. (Of course I’m referring to brand DRTV – not the yell & sell stuff.)

Lets hope that honors like this can help make that happen — and wake up advertisers everywhere to the reality that DRTV can play a powerful role in building brand for those who use it well.

Note: Here’s some background on Landor’s process (taken from the link above): “Brand strength is determined using three years of consumer survey data from the BrandAsset® Valuator (BAV) U.S. database (we compared results from 2008 to 2011 for this study). Landor analyzed data for approximately 2,500 brands across industries, based on interviews with more than 15,000 consumers annually, evaluating against 48 different measures of brand health.”

Copyright 2012 – Doug Garnett – All Rights Reserved