Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

20 BRAND RELEVANCE
the one UPS has developed; a design breakthrough like Chrysler
had in its minivan innovation in the early 1980s; brand equity;
or the loyalty of a customer base. Customer loyalty (with its
associated brand strength) is often the most important barrier or
at least plays a key supporting role. Whether the loyalty is based
on habit and convenience or intense emotional or self - expressive
benefi ts, it can be costly for competitor to overcome.
The Innovation Continuum
There is an innovation continuum, summarized in Figure 1.4 ,
that spans incremental to substantial to transformational that
refl ects the extent to which the offering enhancement affects
the marketplace. In a healthy business context a fi rm will make
an effort to improve their product or service. The question is,
What is the impact of that offering improvement and how long
will that impact last? When does it create a new category or
subcategory?
Incremental innovation will provide modest improvement
that will affect brand preference. The level of differentiation
will therefore be minor. In some cases the improvement will be
so modest or so under the radar or so unappreciated by customers
that its impact will not be noticeable, although an accumulation
of such enhancements might have an effect. In others,
the incremental innovation will provide a measurable increase
Figure 1.4 Innovation Continuum
Offering
Enhancement
Noticeable Impact on
Brand Preference
New Category
or Subcategory
Game
Changer
Innovation Incremental Substantial Transformational