Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant

Preface

During the last ten years, I have been struck by how the concept of brand relevance could explain so much about strategic successes, market dynamics, and even brand declines. A brand could develop great marketing supported by large budgets but not make a dent in the market unless it drove a new category or subcategory of products or services, unless a new competitive arena in which the competitors were no longer relevant emerged. Then success could be dramatic in terms of sales, profits, and market position. It seems clear that success is about winning not the brand preference battle but, rather, the brand relevance war with an innovative offering that achieves sustainable differentiation by creating a new category or subcategory.

When ...