Branding guru Aaker shows how to eliminate the competition and become the lead brand in your market This ground-breaking book defines the concept of brand relevance using dozens of case studies-Prius, Whole Foods, Westin, iPad and more-and explains how brand relevance drives market dynamics, which generates opportunities for your brand and threats for the competition. Aaker reveals how these companies have made other brands in their categories irrelevant. Key points: When managing a new category of product, treat it as if it were a brand; By failing to produce what customers want or losing momentum and visibility, your brand becomes irrelevant; and create barriers to competitors by supporting innovation at every level of the organization.
- Using dozens of case studies, shows how to create or dominate new categories or subcategories, making competitors irrelevant
- Shows how to manage the new category or subcategory as if it were a brand and how to create barriers to competitors
- Describes the threat of becoming irrelevant by failing to make what customer are buying or losing energy
- David Aaker, the author of four brand books, has been called the father of branding
This book offers insight for creating and/or owning a new business arena. Instead of being the best, the goal is to be the only brand around-making competitors irrelevant.
Table of Contents:
Preface xiii
1. Winning the Brand Relevance Battle 1
Cases: The Japanese Beer Industry and the U.S. Computer Industry 1
Gaining Brand Preference 9
The Brand Relevance Model 13
Creating New Categories or Subcategories 17
Levels of Relevance 25
The New Brand Challenge 26
The First-Mover Advantage 30
The Payoff 34
Creating New Categories or Subcategories—Four Challenges 39
The Brand Relevance Model Versus Others 41
2. Understanding Brand Relevance: Categorizing, Framing, Consideration, and Measurement 47
Categorization 48
It’s All About Framing 53
Consideration Set as a Screening Step 62
Measuring Relevance 64
3. Changing the Retail Landscape 69
Cases:
Muji 71
IKEA 73
Zara 74
H&M 76
Best Buy 77
Whole Foods Market 81
The Subway Story 86
Zappos 88
4. Market Dynamics in the Automobile Industry 97
Cases:
Toyota’s Prius Hybrid 98
The Saturn Story 106
The Chrysler Minivan 110
Tata’s Nano 115
Yugo 118
Enterprise Rent-A-Car 119
Zipcar 122
5. The Food Industry Adapts 127
Cases:
Fighting the Fat Battle 129
Nabisco Cookies 134
Dreyer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream 136
P&G’s Olestra 139
From Fat to Health 141
General Mills and the Health Trends 142
Healthy Choice 148
6. Finding New Concepts 157
Case: Apple 157
Concept Generation 165
Sourcing Concepts 169
Prioritizing the Analysis 192
7. Evaluation 197
Case: Segway’s Human Transporter 197
Evaluation: Picking the Winners 200
Is There a Market—Is the Opportunity Real? 202
Can We Compete and Win? 215
Does the Offering Have Legs? 220
Beyond Go or No-Go—A Portfolio of Concepts 223
8. Defining and Managing the Category or Subcategory 227
Case: Salesforce.com 227
Defining a New Category or Subcategory 234
Functional Benefits Delivered by the Offering 239
Customer-Brand Relationship—Beyond the Offering 254
Categories and Subcategories: Complex and Dynamic 260
Managing the Category or Subcategory 261
9. Creating Barriers: Sustaining the Differentiation 269
Case: Yamaha Disklavier 269
Creating Barriers to Competition 275
Investment Barriers 276
Owning a Compelling Benefit or Benefits 283
Relationship with Customers 290
Link the Brand to the Category or Subcategory 294
10. Gaining and Maintaining Relevance in the Face of Market Dynamics 297
Case: Walmart 298
Avoiding the Loss of Relevance 301
Product Category or Subcategory Relevance 302
Category or Subcategory Relevance Strategies 304
Energy Relevance 311
Gaining Relevance—The Hyundai Case 320
11. The Innovative Organization 327
Case: GE Story 327
The Innovative Organization 332
Selective Opportunism 334
Dynamic Strategic Commitment 339
Organization-Wide Resource Allocation 344
Epilogue: The Yin and Yang of the Relevance Battle 355
Notes 359
Index 371
About the Author :
DAVID A. AAKER is vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy, an executive advisor to Dentsu Inc., and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
