Page 325 - Marketing Management

302 PART 4 BUILDING STRONG BRANDS

Increasing frequency of consumption, on the other hand, requires either (1) identifying addi-
tional opportunities to use the brand in the same basic way or (2) identifying completely new and
different ways to use the brand.
Additional Opportunities to Use the Brand A marketing program can communicate the
appropriateness and advantages of using the brand. Clorox ads stress the many benefits of its
bleach, such as that it eliminates kitchen odors.
Another opportunity arises when consumers’ perceptions of their usage differs from reality.
Consumers may fail to replace a short-lived product when they should because they overestimate
6
how long it stays fresh. One strategy is to tie the act of replacing the product to a holiday, event, or
time of year. Another might be to provide consumers with better information about when they first
used the product or need to replace it, or (2) the current level of product performance. Gillette ra-
zor cartridges feature colored stripes that slowly fade with repeated use, signaling the user to move
on to the next cartridge.
New Ways to Use the Brand The second approach to increasing frequency of consumption is
to identify completely new and different applications. Food product companies have long
advertised recipes that use their branded products in different ways. After discovering that some
consumers used Arm & Hammer baking soda as a refrigerator deodorant, the company launched a
heavy promotion campaign focusing on this use and succeeded in getting half the homes in the
United States to adopt it. Next, the company expanded the brand into a variety of new product
categories such as toothpaste, antiperspirant, and laundry detergent.

Protecting Market Share
While trying to expand total market size, the dominant firm must actively defend its current business:
7
Boeing against Airbus, Staples against Office Depot, and Google against Yahoo! and Microsoft. How
can the leader do so? The most constructive response is continuous innovation. The front-runner
should lead the industry in developing new products and customer services, distribution effectiveness,
and cost cutting. Comprehensive solutions increase its competitive strength and value to customers.

PROACTIVE MARKETING In satisfying customer needs, we can draw a distinction between
responsive marketing, anticipative marketing, and creative marketing. A responsive marketer finds a
stated need and fills it. An anticipative marketer looks ahead to needs customers may have in the
near future. A creative marketer discovers solutions customers did not ask for but to which they
enthusiastically respond. Creative marketers are proactive market-driving firms, not just market-
Arm & Hammer has expanded its 8
driven ones.
classic baking soda product line to
Many companies assume their job is just to adapt to customer needs. They are reactive mostly
encompass many new products
because they are overly faithful to the customer-orientation paradigm and fall victim to the
and uses.
“tyranny of the served market.” Successful companies instead proactively shape the
market to their own interests. Instead of trying to be the best player, they change
the rules of the game. 9
A company needs two proactive skills: (1) responsive anticipation to see the writing
on the wall, as when IBM changed from a hardware producer to a service business and
(2) creative anticipation to devise innovative solutions, as when PepsiCo introduced
H2OH! (a soft drink–bottled water hybrid). Note that responsive anticipation is per-
formed before a given change,while reactive response happens after the change takes place.
Proactive companies create new offers to serve unmet— and maybe even unknown—
consumer needs. In the late 1970s, Akio Morita, the Sony founder, was working on a pet
project that would revolutionize the way people listened to music: a portable cassette
player he called the Walkman. Engineers at the company insisted there was little demand
for such a product, but Morita refused to part with his vision. By the 20th anniversary of
the Walkman, Sony had sold over 250 million in nearly 100 different models. 10
Proactive companies may redesign relationships within an industry, like Toyota
and its relationship to its suppliers. Or they may educate customers, as Body Shop
does in stimulating the choice of environmental-friendly products.
Companies need to practice “uncertainty management.” Proactive firms:
• Are ready to take risks and make mistakes,
• Have a vision of the future and of investing in it,