Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the ways in which food companies can work with branding to perform better in the market. The authors achieve this purpose by comparing how different managers of food brands prioritise and evaluate their brands, in relation to a theoretical ideal framework. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 77 managers of domestic and international brands. Findings – Beliefs and priorities are similar between managers. What differs is how they measure and monitor their brands. Managers of high performing brands, for example, in general measure brand equity to a greater extent than other managers, and they focus significantly more on monitoring typical brand equity elements such as brand awareness, uniqueness, and feelings. Also managers of international brands measure and monitor more intensively than those of domestic brands. Practical implications – Weaker and domestic brands could learn from the better-performing brands, by becoming more oriented towards key brand equity elements when performing monitoring, rather than focusing mainly on perceived quality. Originality/value – A comparative and systematic method that suggests an alternative and analytical approach to strengthening domestic and weaker brands