Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

WINNING THE BRAND RELEVANCE BATTLE 9
laptops, notebooks, and tablets that create the market dynamics
that changed the fortunes of the participates. Again and again
competitors fell back or disappeared, and new ones emerged as
new subcategories were formed. The ongoing marketing efforts
involving advertising, trade shows, and promotions had little
impact on the market dynamics. A similar analysis could be
made concerning most industries.
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Brand relevance is a powerful concept. Understanding and
managing relevance can be the difference between winning by
becoming isolated from competitors or being mired in a diffi cult
market environment where differentiation is hard to achieve
and often short - lived. It is not easy, however, but requires a new
mind - set that is sensitive to market signals, is forward looking,
and values innovation.
This chapter starts by defi ning and comparing the two perspectives
of the marketplace, the brand preference model and
the brand relevance model. It then describes the central concept
of creating a new category or subcategory and the role of
substantial and transformational innovation in that process. The
next section describes the new management task, to infl uence
and manage the perceptions and position of the new category
and subcategory. The chapter then turns to the potential power
of the fi rst mover advantage and the value of being a trend
driver. The payoff of creating new categories and subcategories is
then detailed and followed by a description of the four tasks that
are necessary to create a new category or subcategory. Finally,
the brand relevance concept is contrasted with approaches put
forth by other authors toward a similar objective and the rest of
the book is outlined.
Gaining Brand Preference
There are two ways to compete in existing markets — gaining
brand preference and making competitors irrelevant.