Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

188 BRAND RELEVANCE
competitor was simply premature in that the technology was not
there yet. Apple, Zara, Zappos, and Prius all were benefi ciaries
of timely advances in computers that helped them overcome
technical challenges. Subway exploited the unhealthy menus of
its competitors and showed with Jared ’ s vivid story how fast food
could be healthier.
Nintendo, the most successful brand in the 2000s according
to the annual BrandJapan tracking study (it went being
ranked in Japan from 135 in 2005 to number 1 in 2008 and
2009), had a competitor - driven strategy. Sony ’ s Playstation
and Microsoft ’ s XBox both emphasized performance graphics,
the key to the success of action games aimed at young males.
Instead of playing the performance game, Nintendo chose to
deemphasize technology and to instead focus on player involvement
and on expanding the use profi le from young males to the
whole family. The key for this group was a wide array of easy - to -
use, involving games that would move beyond the action genre
and even include some learning vehicles. One goal was to have
the mother a participant and an advocate rather than a cynic
and opponent. Another was to involve the whole family so the
games would not simply represent the boy ’ s retreats. Nintendo ’s
competitors had left open a wide white space.
Sometimes the very strength of competitors can stimulate
options. The strength of Kirin in lager beer was turned against
them when Asahi came out with its “ not lager, not older, not
traditional ” Super Dry entry. Similarly, the success of the station
wagon concept and its clear functional approach was a help to
Chrysler as they established the minivan as an alternative.
Technology - Stimulated Concepts
A development in technology can stimulate a concept. In that
case the challenge is to create or simulate a latent, unrecognized,
unmet need. There was no unmet need for dry beer in
Japan until Asahi Super Dry was invented and Asahi, through