Branding Strategy Insider

Winning With New Categories And Subcategories

The way to win in the marketplace, to gain profitable growth, is not to be preferred over competitor brands in established subcategories but, rather, to generate offerings so innovative that they create new categories or subcategories making competitors irrelevant. There are plenty of examples of brands in the automobile space that have done just that such as Jeep, Ford Thunderbird, Ford Mustang, VW bug, Pontiac Firebird, Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, Lexus LS 400, Mazda Miata, Saturn, Prius, Minicooper, Nano, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Zipcar. 
More easily said than done. Let us look quickly at two examples of automobile brands that have been successful at creating new subcategories and then see what the learnings are.

The Chrysler minivan, first introduced in 1982 as the Plymouth Voyager (pictured) and Dodge Caravan, sold over 200,000 units in the first year and over 12 million to date. The concept of a "garageable," roomy van for families that had the comfort of a car was first proposed by Lee Iacocca, then president of Ford, several years earlier but rejected by Henry Ford in part because Ford lacked the necessary front wheel drive and because it enjoyed a healthy station wagon business. Iacocca had the chance to implement his vision when he became CEO of Chrysler after being fired from Ford. The timing was right. Chrysler had just introduced a front wheel car, had no station wagon business, and was in financial crises -- desperate for a new model.

5 Drivers Of Brand Insistence

 
We believe that the ultimate goal of brand equity building is to move the consumer from brand awareness to brand insistence.  Our brand insistence model incorporates five elements that drive a consumer to insist upon a particular brand to meet his or her needs – brand awareness, accessibility, value, relevant differentiation, and emotional connection.  We believe that these five areas of emphasis and activity are the primary drivers of consumer brand insistence, critical in becoming a category-of-one-brand where there are No Substitutes.

Awareness

First, consumers must be aware that there are different brands in the product categories in which your brand operates. Next, they must be aware of your brand. Ideally, your brand should be the first one that comes to their minds within specific product categories and associated with key consumer benefits. Consumers should be able to identify which products and services your brand offers. They should also be able to identify which benefits are associated with the brand. Finally, they should have some idea of where your brand is sold. 

Accessibility

Your brand must be available where consumers shop. it's much easier for consumers to insist upon your brand if it is widely available. Slight brand preference goes a long way toward insistence when the brand is widely available. The importance of convenience cannot be underestimated in today's world.

Value

Does your brand deliver a good value for the price? Do consumers believe it is worth the price? Regardless of whether it is expensive or inexpensive, high end or low end, it must deliver at least a good value.

Relevant Differentiation

This is the most important thing a brand can deliver. Relevant differentiation today is a leading-edge indicator of profitability and market share tomorrow. Does your brand own consumer-relevant, consumer-compelling benefits that are unique and believable?

Emotional Connection

First, the consumer must know your brand. Then he or she must like your brand. Finally, the consumer must trust your brand and feel an emotional connection to it. There are many innovative ways to achieve this emotional connection from advertising and the quality of front line consumer contact to consumer membership organizations and company-sponsored consumer events. 

Ask us how this model can be used to measure the equity of your brand.

Sponsored by: The Brand Positioning Workshop 

Brands and the Ladder of Life

One of the typical questions marketing people ask themselves is, What’s the lifetime value of a customer?

Presumably a company benefits by keeping its customers satisfied over an extended period of time. Nice idea in theory, but this kind of thinking often leads a company down the wrong path.

Take Saturn, for example. Here was a brand built on the ultimate in customer satisfaction. Comfortable showrooms, no high-pressure sales people, no haggling over prices. ‘A different kind of company. A different kind of car.’

The first Saturn model, the S series, was wildly successful. For a number of years, the average Saturn dealer sold more cars than the average dealer of any other brand. (In 1996, for example, the average Saturn dealer sold 776 cars versus 684 for Honda and 606 for Toyota. The average Chevrolet/Geo dealer that year sold only 237 cars.)

But what would happen when a Saturn customer got older and made more money? The S series, after all, was a relatively inexpensive compact car. No problem, decided Saturn management, We’ll take care of our customers by introducing the L series, a larger, more expensive car. ‘The next big thing from Saturn.’

Not a good move. Sales of the S series fell because the model was ‘long in the tooth.’ Sales of the L series suffered because prospective customers thought ‘it was a little too expensive for a Saturn.’

Beyond Brand Preference

There's a coveted place beyond brand preference. It's called brand insistence. You're there when your brand is perceived to be the only viable solution for the customer’s need. Put another way, the customer does not pursue substitutes if the brand is not available. The brand has established a consideration set of one.

Achieving brand insistence requires overcoming 6 of 7 steps in the ladder of the mind. The consideration set continuum looks like this:

•    I would never choose to buy this brand
•    I’ve never heard of this brand
•    I’ve heard of this brand but don’t know much about it
•    Not one of my preferred brands but I’d try it under certain circumstances
•    Not one of my preferred brands but from what I’ve heard about it recently I’d like to try it/try it again
•    This is one of my preferred brands
•    This is the only brand I would ever consider buying

Brand insistence is reserved for those brands that have been carefully designed to posses these characteristics: relevant differentiated benefits for their target customers, ability to build strong emotional connections, have a high degree of awareness, are perceived to deliver deep value for the price and are easily accessible.

These drivers work together to move customers from 1. being aware of your brand 2. purchasing your brand 3. preferring your brand 4. being loyal to your brand to 5. insisting on your brand.

Sponsored By: Brand Aid