As Troy stated in his post on the success of the Porsche company (http://blogs.ubc.ca/troymcgee/2014/09/30/the-success-of-porsche/), the power of brand equity and value propositions is not to be underestimated. The value proposition of a company is what defines it to the world – including potential investors and customers. The stronger a value proposition is, the more defined a brand name becomes. Troy said that from the beginning Porsche defined itself as a producer of “sleek, beautiful and yet simple machines that perform exactly the way the consumer wanted them to”, and that this is what the brand is known for. He is right of course – big companies do reap the benefits of their reputations. An example we used in class was Toyota vs. Volvo on the subject of vehicle safety: Volvo has established itself as being “safe”, and no matter how much advertising Toyota does, it will likely never surpass Volvo in the minds of the consumer. This clearly illustrates the concept of value propositions and how important they are to the consumer’s perception of the company in question.