Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

200 BRAND RELEVANCE
leaning. It expanded its reach to some sixty countries. It developed
a Segway social online networking site whereby owners
could compare notes and experiences. They still have no
competition for their product and are considering extension to
four - wheel vehicles in cooperation with GM. But there is little
question that the optimistic prospects did not materialize.
Not to be discouraged, Kamen ’ s next venture is to produce a
box fueled by burning cow manure to purify water. 5 If the device,
with inexpensive, reliable parts designed by Kamen ’ s fi rms, can
get distribution it would potentially reduce sharply the number
of deaths caused by impure water now estimated to be in the
neighborhood of fi ve million people per year. Kamen did learn
one lesson from the Segway. In the future he plans to get a large
fi rm to handle the production and distribution of the product.
What are the learnings here? Where did the evaluation go
wrong? First, market research needed to have more depth. The
overestimation of the market for postal and security workers
could have been reduced, perhaps with ethnographic research
or a more systematic fi eld test. Second, distribution is a key link
to any new offering and, in retrospect, chains that could demonstrate,
train, and service were necessary. Third, the talent
defi ciency in marketing was a contributing factor in the disappointing
sales. The role of talent is too often underestimated.
Finally, there is a downside of exuberance and widespread publicity.
If an evaluation had led the way to a modest plan spread
out over a decade, the Segway, with its performance, quality,
and publicity, might have been recorded as a clear winner.
Evaluation: Picking the Winners
There will always be too many concept ideas if the organization
is open to them and way too many if the organization actively
creates them. Because there are limits on any organization ’s
resources and tolerance for risk, it becomes critical to prune
them back with discipline and identify those that have the most