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Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

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6<br />

FINDING NEW CONCEPTS<br />

The best way to a good idea is to have lots to<br />

choose from.<br />

—Linus Pauling<br />

The question is not what you look at, but what<br />

you see.<br />

—Henry David Thoreau<br />

The strategic goal should <strong>always</strong> be to develop a new category<br />

or subcategory so that the diffi cult and destructive brand preference<br />

competition is no longer the norm. That involves several<br />

tasks that Apple does very well: fi nd and evaluate new concepts,<br />

defi ne them, and create barriers to competitors.<br />

Apple<br />

In October 2001 Apple launched the iPod, which combined<br />

Apple ’ s technological fl are, its easy - to - use vision, and its eye for<br />

design. 1 It was an instant success. Over the years Apple added<br />

such variations as the iPod shuffl e, nano, and touch. Eight years<br />

later, having sold over 220 million units, the iPod led to the<br />

creation of four additional new subcategories in the form of<br />

the iTunes store, iPhone, Apple Store, and iPad.<br />

The iPod had a design that was breathtaking in its aesthetics<br />

and functionality. The clean lines; the color; the feel; and the<br />

wheel all made it stand out in the world of consumer electronics.<br />

Its functionality, from the interface to the speed of downloading<br />

music, was far beyond that of the existing MP3 players.<br />

157

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