ZAG: The Number-One Strategy of High-Performance Brands

Brand As a System

In my earlier book, THE BRAND GAP, I showed that brand-building isn’t a series of isolated activities, but a complete system in which five disciplines—differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation, and cultivation—combine to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. My intent with ZAG is to zoom in on differentiation to reveal the system within the system.

While the previous section gave you clues for finding your zag, this section offers a process for designing it. I use the word design as economist Herbert Simon used it: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” The preferred situation in this case is a compelling brand based on radical differentiation. ...