Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

FINDING NEW CONCEPTS 191
course is to leverage the technology by exploring a wide range of
applications. The Freeplay Group in Cape Town, South Africa,
invents and sells devices that generate electricity when the user
cranks the handle on a fl ashlight - like product containing a carbonized
steel spring. 22 As the spring unwinds it produces electricity.
This advance led them to a host of products that needed
an energy source including a radio, a global positioning system,
a land - mine detector, a water purifi er, and a toy monster truck.
One way to leverage assets and competencies is to employ
those found in one business unit to other business units. When that
happens, the resulting offering will often have an advantage
that is unique to the organization and thus easy to defend. 3M ’ s
Optical Systems Division, for example, makes computer displays
that are more energy efficient, easier to read, and able to direct the
light toward the user because they are based on insights and technology
drawn from all over the firm. And P & G regularly explores
whether a technology in one product arena can be used in another.
For example, Crest Whitestrips was developed by combining the
film technology from corporate R & D with bleach technology from
the laundry organization and Crest ’ s business knowledge of oral -
care issues and distribution assets. Other firms without those competencies
will find it hard to duplicate the offering.
Employing assets and competencies across organizational
silos should be easy because such divisions are often down the
hall from one another. However, silo barriers can be severe, and
assertive programs and incentives may be needed even to share
information. Unilever has the Genesis project, which encourages
scientifi c breakthroughs useable across Unilever ’ s product
lines.
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The role model is the yellow - tint - canceling whitener
developed for Radiant detergent and Signal toothpaste.
Consider Category or Subcategory Definitions
Another approach to gaining ideas for new concepts is to observe
how categories and subcategories are defi ned and determine