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Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

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DEFINING AND MANAGING THE CATEGORY OR SUBCATEGORY 241<br />

that they will have a quality, reliability, and feature defi ciency.<br />

The experience of Toyota in the 1970s and more recently<br />

Hyundai shows that it is possible to overcome this assumption,<br />

but it can take a long time. In the meantime, the subcategory<br />

will struggle, and the ability of competitors to exploit the perceived<br />

defi ciency lingers. The problem is not restricted to value<br />

entries. Volvo has owned safety but has struggled over the years<br />

to be perceived as having a stylish design that someone would<br />

be proud to drive.<br />

Combining Benefits<br />

A new subcategory can be defi ned by a combination of benefi ts.<br />

An acceptable brand would then need to have a set of benefi<br />

ts. Many of P & G ’ s transformational innovations resulted from<br />

its ability to combine attributes often sourced from different<br />

business units. There is, for example, Tide Free for Coldwater<br />

HE (high effi ciency) Liquid Laundry Detergent that delivers<br />

three benefi ts. It works in cold water for high - effi ciency washing<br />

machines and is free of dyes and perfumes. As mentioned in the<br />

last chapter, Annie Chun offered packaged dinners that were<br />

Asian, convenient, interesting, natural, and high quality, creating<br />

a subcategory defi ned by multiple benefi ts.<br />

Subcategories defi ned by multiple benefi ts have also driven<br />

the toothpaste market. Crest added cavity protection to quality<br />

cleaning action in the 1950s, which led to a subcategory that<br />

provided a strong market position for decades. In 1997 the market<br />

had become so fragmented, with a host of additional benefi ts<br />

plus fl avors and packaging forms, that choice had become complex<br />

and frustrating. Colgate ’ s Total formed another subcategory<br />

by combining a set of benefi ts into one. In particular, it provided<br />

cleaning, long - lasting breath protection, and antibacterial<br />

ingredients controlling a wide range of bacteria that are active<br />

between brushings. This new subcategory allowed Total to surge<br />

past Crest.

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