Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

164 BRAND RELEVANCE
With that background, what guidance is there for those who
would like to move from the brand preference competition to
create market arenas in which the relevance of competitors is
reduced or eliminated entirely? How can a fi rm create and dominate
a new category or subcategory with a different value proposition
and group of loyal customers?
The answers to these questions can be structured into the
four interrelated tasks or challenges that all organizations, from
start - ups to mature fi rms, need to address. As summarized in
Figure 6.1 , they are concept generation, concept evaluation,
defi ning and managing the new categories or subcategories, and
creating barriers to competitors. This chapter will cover concept
generation. The following three chapters will discuss and elaborate
each of other three tasks.
Chapter Ten will discuss the challenge of gaining and maintaining
relevance. In Chapter Eleven the characteristics of a
supporting, innovative organization are detailed. In an epilogue,
the whole process will be put into perspective. The reality is
that although the payoff is high, the process is both diffi cult and
risky with an uncertain outcome.
Figure 6.1 Creating Offerings That Will Drive New
Categories or Subcategories
Concept Generation
Creating New Categories/Subcategories
Making Competitors Irrelevant
Concept Evaluation
Defining and Managing the
Category or Subcategory
Creating Barriers
to Competition