Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

DEFINING AND MANAGING THE CATEGORY OR SUBCATEGORY 245
provide a systems solutions to customers, importers, and retailers
who were experiencing spoilage issues and were frustrated
because it was never clear who in the logistics chain was responsible.
Under its Fresh Partners programs, KLM provided an
unbroken “ cool chain ” from the producer to the point of delivery,
with three levels of service — fresh regular, fresh cool, and
fresh supercool — with end - to - end responsibility (whereby products
are guaranteed to have a specifi c temperature from truck to
warehouse to plane to warehouse to truck to the retailer). Firms
importing orchids from Thailand and salmon from Norway were
among those using the service.
Business - to - business fi rms have augmented their offerings
and created differentiation by adding services and value to the
logistical system. FedEx, for example, pioneered the tracking
of packages and the integration of its computer systems with
those of customers so that its business customers could control
and manage the shipping function. Cemex, a concrete company,
realized that its customers had a lot of money riding on
predictable delivery because concrete was highly perishable. 5
As a result, Cemex created capabilities using digital systems
that allowed drivers to adjust in real time to traffi c patterns
and changing customer timetables. It can now deliver its product
within minutes and process changed orders on the fl y. It
addressed an unmet need, and the totally new business model
that resulted has led to Cemex ’ s going from a regional player to
being the third - largest concrete company in the world, serving
thirty countries.
Being Customer Involving
Most categories and subcategories have offerings that interact
with customers in a passive way. However, there can be
an opportunity to create a category or subcategory in which
the customers become active participants, involvement that
becomes a part of the defi ning effort.