Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

UNDERSTANDING BRAND RELEVANCE 67
the challenges, and the rewards of becoming the early market
leaders and the exemplar of a new category or subcategory.
Key Takeaways
Categorization, how people form and defi ne categories and
subcategories, is at the heart of relevance. If a brand can
become the exemplar brand that is used to defi ne the category
or subcategory, other brands will be at a disadvantage.
Framing, which infl uences the way a category or subcategory
is perceived, affects information processing, attitudes, and
behavior. Subtle differences in presenting the category or
subcategory can have differences in perceptions. People often
use a screening step in brand choice to determine whether a
brand should be considered. A brand will be screened out if
it has a category or subcategory relevance issue or if it lacks
visibility and energy. The measurement of relevance is based
on whether the category or subcategory is selected and then
given that choice will the brand be considered.
For Discussion
1. What are some exemplar brands? What impact has that status
had on their marketing programs?
2. For the automobile or some other industry, describe how its
subcategories are framed. Is there a brand that is driving that
framing?
3. Identify a brand that often fails to be in the consideration
set for a category or subcategory but that most know makes
an offering that should qualify as being relevant.
4. Pick two brands and design a relevance measurement system
for them.