Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

214 BRAND RELEVANCE
actually purchase novel products than offerings that are less of
a departure from existing products and that have more easily
understood benefi ts. Feedback that is useful for a novel product
will generally be from early adopters and opinion leaders, those
who have an interest and feel for new concepts, or will be based
on actual trial usage from a pilot test.
Starting with a small market footprint is a step beyond using
a test market. It means that the fi rm is using a market presence
initially to validate and refi ne. The fi rm enhances what works
and replaces what does not. Many retail brands, such as Muji,
Zara, Best Buy, and Whole Foods Market, evolved dramatically
during the fi rst years of their existence as their founders experimented
with different ideas and types of presentation. Others
from packaged goods fi rms to service companies deliberately
started with small parts of their respective markets in order to
test and refi ne both the offering and its position. In fact, there
are few breakthrough innovations that do not evolve over time,
and managing that process can be important to success.
Knowing the Value Proposition
There are a host of successful new offerings that defi ned new categories
or subcategories but that were not subject to any formal
customer testing. Steve Jobs is famous for not testing any ideas,
including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. He simply has a clear concept
of the value proposition based on his knowledge of what
is possible, what competitors have, and what the market wants.
Ted Turner never tested the CNN concept but for several years
just knew that an all - news network with national cable distribution
would fl y. He knew that people liked news and would value
not having to wait for the evening news or newspaper.
Having confi dence in the value proposition often accompanies
or is based on an in - depth knowledge of the target
segment. Retailers like Muji and Whole Foods Market each
had an intimate feel for the target audience and understood the