Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

22 BRAND RELEVANCE
to some other strategic lever that will qualitatively change the
value proposition, the bases for loyalty, the way the offering is
perceived, and the assets and competencies needed to deliver
it. The resulting difference is dramatic, creating a marketplace
game changer. The new category or subcategory will be easy to
identify.
Transformational innovation is also termed disruptive
innovation —it disrupts the competitive landscape. Tide (Ariel outside
the United States) introduced a synthetic detergent technology
that made soap powders obsolete. Southwest Airlines
introduced a fun, up - beat personality and point - to - point journeys
that changed air travel. Dell Computers, mini steel mills, and
Gillette razors represent innovations that changed their respective
industries. In the grocery store, Odwalla ’ s new way of delivering
fresh fruit drinks made frozen orange juice obsolete for some.
The distinction between a substantial and a transformational
innovation is not always clear - cut. However, in either
case, a new category or subcategory is formed. For example, a
technology that enabled the introduction of baby carrots created
a new subcategory, resulting in a sharp reduction in the sales of
carrots presented in a conventional manner. Whether that is a
substantial or a transformational innovation could be debated.
Similarly, Cisco introduced a new - generation videoconference
technology called Telepresence that uses massive amounts of
bandwidth to provide a high - fi delity experience, making it a
viable alternative for in - person meetings for fi rms with far - fl ung
operations. It too could be classifi ed either way.
The distinction between transformational, substantial, and
incremental need not be based on the magnitude of a technological
breakthrough. It is rather based on how much the market
is affected and on whether a new category or subcategory
is formed. Enterprise Rent - A - Car, who provided rental cars to
people whose cars were in repair, was a transformational innovation
because it represented such a different value proposition,
target segment, set of assets and competencies, and business