Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

6 BRAND RELEVANCE
Figure 1.2 The Asahi-Kirin Beer War
Market Share
70
Kirin
60
50
40
30
20
10
Asahi
0
1980
Asahi
Dry Beer enters
(1987)
1987
Kirin
Ichiban enters
(1990)
1990
Year
Kirin
Happoshu enters
(1998)
Dry Beer
repositioned
(1995)
1995
1998
2006
Note the importance of brands in the ability of fi rms to
affect category and subcategory position. Kirin Lager captured
the essence of lager and the Kirin heritage. Asahi Super Dry
defi ned and represented the new dry subcategory, even when
Kirin Draft Dry was introduced. Kirin Tanrei was the prime representative
of the happoshu category. And the repositioning of
Asahi Super Dry really repositioned the dry subcategory, because
at that point Asahi was the only viable entry.
The U.S. Computer Industry
Consider also the dynamics of the U.S. computer industry during
the last half century and how these dynamics affected the
winners and losers in the marketplace. The story starts in
the 1960s when seven manufacturers, all backed by big fi rms,
competed for a place in the mainframe space. However, as
“ computers as hardware ” suppliers they became irrelevant in
the face of IBM, who defi ned its offering as a problem - relevant