Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

166 BRAND RELEVANCE
Sometimes there is an obvious unmet need that provides
the basis for a driving concept. The problem is to overcome the
technical problems in order to deliver on that concept. The
desire for low - fat foods is there, for example, but delivering low
fat without sacrifi cing taste is diffi cult, as SnackWell ’ s found out.
Further, the need for better gas economy has been well known,
but the Prius team, with some help from others preceding its
work, had to overcome several technological hurdles. Everyone
knew that the car dealer experience was painful, but the assumption
was that people needed to live with it because there was
no practical solution. Then Saturn came up with the regional
dealer concept, which made no - haggle pricing with consultant
as opposed to pressure selling possible.
Other times the unmet need is known but is dormant because
investment is incorrectly assumed to be too great or the demand
wrongly thought to be too small to take the risk. That may have
been the case for the Chrysler minivan or Best Buy ’ s Geek Squad
before these concepts were proved in the marketplace.
However, in many cases some insight is required to identify
an unmet need that is not obvious. That may have been the
case for Enterprise, Muji, and Zara, whose founders recognized
unmet needs that were not visible to the larger market. Market
insight then results in the potential for a pioneering advantage
because others may not recognize the same need.
A good exercise is to create a list of the top five to ten unmet
needs in the marketplace. Categorize each as to whether it is obvious
but lacking a solution, whether it is dormant, or whether it is
below the radar screen. Keep monitoring each to determine when
the time might be right to actively explore a responsive offering.
Even when an unmet need is targeted, it is still a challenge
to understand its impact and trajectory. Will it support a business
if solutions can be found? How substantial an innovation will
be required? Is the problem so meaningful that any progress
will be helpful and result in a successful new entry? To answer
these questions, it is helpful to put the unmet need into a larger