Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

142 BRAND RELEVANCE
only a partial listing, all have their adherents. The low - carb
theories have received particular notice and have helped draw
attention to weight control and healthy eating in general.
There were countless low - carb diet plans, including the
Atkins Diet, the Scarsdale Diet, the Zone, Sugar Busters, and
the South Beach Diet. The Atkins Diet, formalized in a 1972
book by Robert Atkins, featured severe reductions of refi ned
carbohydrates with little fat restriction. The popularity of the
Atkins diet has ebbed and fl owed, but in 2003 something like
one of eleven people in the United States were on some version
of the program. 9 The South Beach Diet, described in a
2003 book by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietician Marie
Almon, in part advised people to avoid food items like potatoes
or alcohol, which have a high glycemic index, a measure of how
fast a food turns to sugar in the bloodstream. 10 The South Beach
Diet and its supporting books were said to have sold over twenty
million copies.
Scientifi c studies have explored and tested directly or indirectly
these diet plans, all on an ongoing basis. Although there
are some generalized fi ndings, there is a great deal of ambiguity
about some of the specifi cs of the various diet plans and their
effi cacy. Further, these ambiguities fuel public perceptions and
attitudes and create huge swings in behavior, making it hard
for fi rms to predict and respond, to say nothing of leading the
parade. One trend seems to lurch to another without much
warning, a shift perhaps driven by a particularly well - written
book or a specifi c government action. In this context, we look
at the response to the increased interest in healthy eating of
General Mills and ConAgra ’ s Healthy Choice.
General Mills and the Health Trends
The General Mills story illustrates a variety of ways a fi rm can
interpret and respond to a trend to win the relevance battle by
staying relevant and creating contexts in which competitors are