David A. Aaker - Brand Relevance

What always amazes me about Dave Aaker is his uncanny ability to see through the fog and mist and discern a new and fundamental truth that in retrospect seems so perfectly obvious as to seem simplistic. It is just that no one else sees what Dave does. That is exactly the case with Brand Relevance. Aaker perceives that it is no longer brand preference that is pivotal but rather brand relevance has now become key. Brand relevance that yields sustainable differentiation resulting in new categories or subcategories of products or services where competitors are less or even non-relevant. Forget your line extensions and white space analyses, get on the brand relevance bandwagon.

Peter Sealey, former chief marketing officer, Coca-Cola and Columbia Pictures and author, Simplicity Marketing

Aaker offers a fresh approach to brand strategy by observing that most marketers spend their time trying to build or maintain brand preference when they should focus on building brand relevance wins through inventing new categories and sub-categories to meet consumers changing needs.

Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Northwestern University and management guru

Dave has done it again! Students of brand management from the classroom to the boardroom will appreciate the insights, challenges, and practical perspectives of Brand Relevance. Like many of Daves works, this will have a prominent place on my shelf of well-read, frequently-referenced business books.

Denice Torres, president, North America CNS Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc

Dave Aaker has become the foremost authority on branding because of his knack for providing insightful, practical advice to marketers. Brand Relevance is Aaker at his best: Tackling a challenging problem with fresh ideas and compelling examples. He convincingly shows how brands can mean the most to consumers.

Kevin Lane Keller, E. B. Osborn Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and author, Strategic Brand Management

Aakers concept of brand relevance provides an innovation-based path to win in the face of market dynamics.

David Stachon, chief marketing officer, ERGO Insurance Group

Dave Aaker has taught me a lot over the years. Here he goes again. Always redefining. Clarity jumps off the first pagesits less about the brand-preference battle than the brand-relevance war. We work hard at business schools to build students capacity for clear problem statements. By bringing clarity to the real problem, he delivers great opportunity. I especially appreciate his focus on establishing relevance through disciplined process. I also appreciate his links to innovation and how to make it pay.

Richard K. Lyons, dean, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Aaker has hit the nail on the head with Brand Relevance, perhaps the biggest challenge 21st century brands face is to risk innovating andeven more terrifyingtransforming oneself. Youve gotta take the leap or risk getting left behind.

Ann Lewnes, chief marketing officer, Adobe

David Aakers Brand Relevance brings branded insight to the process of innovation. Loaded with powerful examples, his definition of sub-categories provides a contextual sweet spot between close-in product improvements and highly elusive transformational innovations. Davids strategic model brings a potent and practical question for business leaders to ask: Does this innovation create a new sub-category to which competitors are no longer relevant? The numerous examples really help bring it to life

Ian R. Friendly, executive vice president, General Mills

David Aakers latest book is a downright challenge to marketers and strategistsstay the course with familiar approaches to building brand preference and risk the likelihood of being made irrelevant by those who jump right on Aakers lessons. Despite the challenges involved with brand relevance, its clearly a path to potential substantial growth.

Meredith Callanan, vice president corporate marketing and communication, T. Rowe Price

For an established brand like Allianz, Aakers insights are a wake up call because a market leader like us can lose our position if new brands leverage innovation and technology to redefine insurance. We have a lot to lose if we lose the relevance game.

Joseph K. Gross, executive vice president, Allianz SE

Copyright 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aaker, David A.

Brand relevance : making competitors irrelevant / David A. Aaker. 1st ed.

p. cm. (The Jossey-Bass business and management series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-61358-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-470-92259-0 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-470-92260-6 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-470-92261-3 (ebk)

1. Brand name products. 2. Branding (Marketing) 3. Technological innovations. I. Title.

HD69.B7A21535 2011

658.8'27dc22

2010036007

The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series

To my wife Kay and my daughters Jennifer, Jan, and Jolyn who inspire with their support, vitality, compassion, love, and friendship.

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.