Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

UNDERSTANDING BRAND RELEVANCE 61
was inferior in that its price was perceived to be excessive, but it
allowed another camera option to become a compromise choice.
More generally, people tend to avoid extreme choices, so if
options can be added to the choice set such that a brand no longer
represents the top or bottom option, its appeal will increase.
Which Frame Wins?
So which frame will be the dominant infl uence of the perspective
of the category or subcategory? The most appropriate one
should win and sometimes does. However, in many cases it
is the last frame standing, and in more cases it is the one that is
the most commonly used.
A student of mine once hypothesized that the last metaphor
wins. If during a discussion someone puts forth a metaphor
and there is no counter - metaphor on the table, the argument
is often over with. In a discussion of brand pricing if someone
says, “ We are at war and our competition has attacked us with a
price drop, ” the implication is that we need to be aggressive and
angry. That framing will be infl uential. If, however, someone
else at the same meeting characterizes the same event by suggesting
the metaphor that the competitor was losing the battle
and, desperate to survive, chose to reposition as a price brand,
the discussion will take a very different course. Which frame or
metaphor will survive, the attack or the survival? The last metaphor
standing has a big advantage for sure.
In many cases, however, it is the frame that is used most
often that wins. Returning to Lakoff ’ s political landscape,
phrases and associated frames, such as “ tax and spend, ” “ death
taxes, ” “ pro - abortion, ” and “ tort reform ” have been successfully
used by Republicans to manage the discussion and frame the
issues. They did this in part by being disciplined and repetitive.
After these terms are out there so pervasively, their opponents,
the Democrats, started using them as well. When the Democrats
start using the Republican metaphors, the battle is nearly won.