Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

98 BRAND RELEVANCE
minivan, GM ’ s Saturn, Tata ’ s Nano, Yugo, Enterprise Rent - A -
Car, and Zipcar. The goal is to learn how fi rms were able to create
and dominate new subcategories and why competitors stood
by and watched. The automobile industry is a particularly good
context from which to gain insights into competitors ’ reactions
to clearly market - changing innovations. Winning the relevance
battle depends a lot on what competitors do or fail to do. These
stories illustrate that reality rather vividly.
Toyota ’ s Prius Hybrid
The Prius was introduced into the United States in 2000 and
became not only the dominant hybrid car in a growth submarket
but the symbol of Toyota ’ s technological leadership and ecological
commitment. A decade after its introduction it had been
improved in its appearance and performance and retained its
dominance. The story is instructive.
The hybrid, it turns out, is not new. Ferdinand Porsche,
then a twenty - three - year - old engineer, developed a hybrid car
termed the Mixte, which was introduced in 1901 and had high
marks for gas mileage and performance. It was developed at
the behest of a coach builder in Vienna who wanted a silent,
battery - operated car. Porsche concluded that a battery - only
car was not feasible and that a hybrid was the only solution.
Electric and hybrid cars had a niche during the fi rst years of car
production. In fact, in 1900, 38 percent of the cars were electric.
However, the gas - powered car became dominant because
of a demand for faster cars; the availability of cheap gasoline;
the construction of highways; Ford ’ s inexpensive Model T,
introduced in 1908; and the invention of the self - starter, fi rst
offered by Cadillac in 1912, which eliminated a very annoying
and dangerous design limitation of gasoline cars, the hand
crank. For over half a century, battery - powered cars operated
under the radar as cheap gasoline and improvements in gas -
powered engines emerged.