Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

EVALUATION 211
middle - aged athletes, led to a series of choices involving product
content, packaging, distribution, and advertising built around
professional athletes. The problem was that the real market was
an older demographic, people who wanted lower - calorie, less -
expensive products and who were accessed through a different
channel. The effort aimed at the wrong market almost caused
the venture to fail.
There can be a basic reluctance to step beyond the conventional
way of doing things. An offering with a totally new perspective
might be dismissed out of hand. There is a true story
about a high jumper good enough to be on the Oregon State
University track team who had an unusual style. The coaches
insisted that he learn the conventional “ straddle roll ” way, but his
progress declined to the point that they gave up and let him jump
his way. A few years later, as a senior, he won an Olympic gold
medal using his “ Fosbury Flop, ” and within five years after that his
novel method was the norm and the world record was advanced 5
percent. 16 There were hundreds of promising tennis players with
games that were destroyed because they were forced by coaches to
hit one - handed backhands until Chis Evert and Jimmy Conners
made the two - handed backhand, now the norm, acceptable. So
when a novel approach comes out of a brainstorming session,
remember the Fosbury Flop and the two - handed backhand.
The “ Market ’ s Too Small ” Problem
A market needs to be substantial enough to support a business.
A niche too narrow may have substantial and sustainable differentiation
but will not be viable, in part because its operating
and marketing costs become too high. However, avoiding small
markets carries its own risk. A combination of niche markets
can create a substantial business. In an era of micromarketing,
much of the action is in smaller niche segments. If a fi rm avoids
these, they can lock themselves out of much of the vitality and
profi tability of a business area.