I have a good friend who is incredibly good at wine tasting, so good in fact that he is one of only around three hundred people worldwide who are a Master of Wine. Give David a wine to taste and he will tell you the grape, the year, the country, the kind of soil and even the wine grower. It’s all very entertaining (and he’s very polite about anything I serve up at a meal).

There are a lot of people who are experts in a particular field. For many of them, their field is all they know about. Ask them about their interest and they will tell you everything about it. Discuss anything else, and they have little to say.

David is not like that. He is one of those (occasionally annoying) people who know a lot about everything. (He’s very good to have on your side at Trivial Pursuit.) Because David’s knowledge is so broad, people go to him for a variety of things. Want to know how to rewire your house, take a great photograph, paint, or get a suggestion about a new car or good town to visit on your next visit to Tanzania? David is your man.

David is also your kind of man if you are a brand. As our Community Igniter research shows, people like David have larger than average personal communities, people go to them for advice, and they are more likely than average try out new products and brands. Reach out to people like David and they are likely to talk about you or your service or product, and people will take notice of them.

But turn this on its head. Some brands have depth when it comes to a particular type of product (say a bank or insurance company), whilst others have breadth (like Tesco – from insurance through to clothes through to mobile phones). Which of these types of brands are people more likely to call upon when they need something? The one that has breadth because it is already likely to have relevance to you.

But what does this mean for a brand that has depth and little breadth? It needs to reach out. It needs to find out what kinds of things are important to its target audience. It may be a brand that only makes chocolate biscuits, but what are the kinds of conversations of its target customers that can show it what is important to them? By understanding target customers’ needs (outside of the need for chocolate biscuits!) and facilitating those needs, such a brand can make itself relevant so that the next time they are in the supermarket they pick up its chocolate biscuits rather than its competitor's.

This approach is especially important for a brand whose products are heavily commoditised. By making itself relevant to people by meeting some of their needs outside of its core product– by making itself unique - it can create differentiation from other brands who produce very similar things.The cafe sector in the UK is a great example of how a few brands have turned what could be a very commoditised product - coffee - into something more. For example, Pret a Manger has created itself as a place for mums to go for relaxation and a chat with each other after the school drop off. Often with quite large spaces, they provide room for pushchairs, as well as magazines, newspapers, Wi-Fi, a reliably good customer service, nutritional information and advice on its foods for mums to be.