60 Dollar oder 3,99? Zwei Marken, die ihre Kunden verstanden haben

23.09.2026

Anyone who charges 60 dollars for a loaf of bread in New York is not selling a staple but a production. With “Rye,” the Auer baking family from Graz brings Austrian bread culture complete with all the insignia of its origin and craft to Soho – right down to the two-ton oven from Germany. The calculation works: people line up outside, and the story has long been a topic of conversation back in the old home country, too.

Then Lidl picks up on the talk of the town: an advertising truck rolls through Manhattan with “$60 for bread? Way cheaper: $3.99”, the bakery’s name pixelated out – yet in New York everyone knows who is meant. Not a word about quality, no attack on the craft.

What connects both brands is, for marketing expert and keynote speaker Thomas Daamen, whose talk on brand leadership and brand strategy of Love Brands, “Together – From Zero to Love Brand,” begins exactly here, the foundation of all brand leadership: both have understood their customers. Rye knows that and why New Yorkers pay for provenance and craftsmanship. And Lidl knows what its customers think when they read “60 dollars for a loaf of bread” – and says it out loud. “Lidl’s truck is not a price comparison but the voice of its own customers,” says Daamen. Both the speed and the accuracy are remarkable, he says: recognizing someone else’s moment and using it playfully without turning it into a declaration of war.

Studies show again and again how big a lever customer understanding is: the vast majority of customers expect companies to understand their individual needs – and yet more than half feel treated like a number by most companies. It is precisely in this gap that Love Brands emerge. Those who take customers seriously not as numbers but as people with their own thoughts win more than a purchase – they win belonging. Daamen helped shape this at Aperol: the success lay not in the drink itself but in a precise understanding of the aperitivo moment in which people come together.

“Whether a loaf for 60 dollars or for 3.99 – good advertising does not say what the brand thinks but what the customer thinks,” Daamen sums it up.

Photo credit: Rye by Tim and Martin Auer, New York
This article also appeared on openPR .

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About Thomas Daamen

Thomas Daamen is a keynote speaker from Munich and a Marketing Director with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales, including several years in a leading role for Aperol. He speaks at annual kickoffs, sales conferences, leadership events and customer events about how to understand customers, decide boldly and win teams over for a brand – told through Love Brands.

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