Three Threats to Brand Relevance: Strategies That Work

Summary

From branding guru David Aaker comes “Three Threats to Brand Relevance: Strategies That Work,” a provocative new offering in the Jossey-Bass Short Format series. In Three Threats Aaker reveals that the key to an organization’s sustained growth is to learn what it takes to bring “big” innovation to market and create barriers to competitors.

Aaker also shows how well-established companies can avoid becoming irrelevant in the face of the continuing parade of marketing dynamics led by others. Building on his full-length book “Brand Relevance”, Aaker offers a guide for confronting the three threats if they emerge and shows how to put in place the strategies that will keep the threats at bay. David Aaker says,

“Threats to brand relevance are always lurking around the corner. Your brand is virtually never immune from the risk of fading instead of being energized or being damaged instead of strengthened.”

The Three Threats to Brand Relevance

Threat #1:

A decline in category or subcategory relevance. Customers simply no longer want to buy what you are making, despite the fact you are offering a quality product and some customers love it.

Threat #2:

The loss of energy relevance. Without energy the brand simply does not come to mind as other more visible brands and a decline in energy can create a perception that it is locked in the past, suitable for an older generation.

Threat #3:

The emergence of a “reason-not-to-buy.” The brand may have a perceived quality problem or be associated with a firm policy that is not acceptable.

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“Three Threats to Brand Relevance: Strategies That Work” is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million or wherever books are sold.

Highlights

• 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

Media

• Haas News: Marketing Expert David Aaker to Talk on Threats to Brand Relevance
• HBR.org: Four Strategies for Staying Relevant
• strategy+business: The Innovator’s Prescription: The Relevance of Brand Relevance

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of over one hundred articles and 18 books on marketing, business strategy, and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world.

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