The easier a product is to copy, the more valuable the brand can become

Why? Because when functional differences shrink, economic differences must be explained somewhere else. That “somewhere else” is often brand: trust, mental availability, perceived risk reduction, pricing power, and customer preference under uncertainty. In other words: when the factory makes products more similar, the mind makes brands more valuable. Commoditization does not kill brand value. It often increases its importance. The more interchangeable products become in the market, the more valuable it becomes to be non-interchangeable in the customer’s mind.