Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

282 BRAND RELEVANCE
always been an Apple user ’ s group with a life of its own. When
the iPod, iPhone, and iPad emerged, each had a large and active
network of application writers who were creating and sharing
ideas to extend the product. They also had a new - generation
Apple user ’ s group that used the social media to create cohesive,
meaningful augmentations to the products and brands.
The big idea is that a brand is at the center of a network of
users, programs, products, influencers, dealers, and others. If a firm
can create nodes outside the brand, activate those nodes, and link
them to the brand, the brand will become stronger and more energized.
So Avon is linked to community groups and cancer research
organizations through its Walk for Breast Cancer. Salesforce.com
has a host of firms writing software to be used on its platform and
a network of firms involved with its social programs. Pampers is
linked to organizations involved in raising babies and keeping
them healthy. In each case the brand has been augmented. And
competitors now have to compete not only with the branding
effort but with the brand network, a much harder task.
Brand Loyalty
The customers who become loyal to the brand early on are
usually the easiest to sell because they have a need, are interested,
and may even be risk takers. If these customers are
unavailable or are expensive to attract, competitors will fi nd
building their own bases expensive. Loyalty can be based
on a compelling attribute, an attractive brand personality,
or a set of values that resonate. However, it can also be created
by brand switching costs, such as the learning costs in the case
of software products. And there are the underestimated but powerful
drivers of loyalty to products ranging from candy to cars to
hotels — habit and familiarity.
The fi rm usually needs to make a decision between an
aggressive effort to build sales and a more deliberate one that
would reduce investment and risk in addition to allowing for
offering improvement. The more aggressive option, particularly
when others are only too willing and able to copy innovations, is