DAVID A. AAKER is vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy, an executive advisor to Dentsu Inc., and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

• Preface xiii1. Winning the Brand Relevance Battle 1Cases: The Japanese Beer Industry and the U.S. Computer Industry 1Gaining Brand Preference 9The Brand Relevance Model 13Creating New Categories or Subcategories 17Levels of Relevance 25The New Brand Challenge 26The First-Mover Advantage 30The Payoff 34Creating New Categories or Subcategories—Four Challenges 39The Brand Relevance Model Versus Others 412. Understanding Brand Relevance: Categorizing, Framing, Consideration, and Measurement 47Categorization 48It’s All About Framing 53Consideration Set as a Screening Step 62Measuring Relevance 643. Changing the Retail Landscape 69Cases:Muji 71IKEA 73Zara 74H&M 76Best Buy 77Whole Foods Market 81The Subway Story 86Zappos 884. Market Dynamics in the Automobile Industry 97Cases: Toyota’s Prius Hybrid 98The Saturn Story 106The Chrysler Minivan 110Tata’s Nano 115Yugo 118Enterprise Rent-A-Car 119Zipcar 1225. The Food Industry Adapts 127Cases:Fighting the Fat Battle 129Nabisco Cookies 134Dreyer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream 136P&G’s Olestra 139From Fat to Health 141General Mills and the Health Trends 142Healthy Choice 1486. Finding New Concepts 157Case: Apple 157Concept Generation 165Sourcing Concepts 169Prioritizing the Analysis 1927. Evaluation 197Case: Segway’s Human Transporter 197Evaluation: Picking the Winners 200Is There a Market—Is the Opportunity Real? 202Can We Compete and Win? 215Does the Offering Have Legs? 220Beyond Go or No-Go—A Portfolio of Concepts 2238. Defining and Managing the Category or Subcategory 227Case: Salesforce.com 227Defining a New Category or Subcategory 234Functional Benefits Delivered by the Offering 239Customer-Brand Relationship—Beyond the Offering 254Categories and Subcategories: Complex and Dynamic 260Managing the Category or Subcategory 2619. Creating Barriers: Sustaining the Differentiation 269Case: Yamaha Disklavier 269Creating Barriers to Competition 275Investment Barriers 276Owning a Compelling Benefit or Benefits 283Relationship with Customers 290Link the Brand to the Category or Subcategory 29410. Gaining and Maintaining Relevance in the Face of Market Dynamics 297Case: Walmart 298Avoiding the Loss of Relevance 301Product Category or Subcategory Relevance 302Category or Subcategory Relevance Strategies 304Energy Relevance 311Gaining Relevance—The Hyundai Case 32011. The Innovative Organization 327Case: GE Story 327The Innovative Organization 332Selective Opportunism 334Dynamic Strategic Commitment 339Organization-Wide Resource Allocation 344Epilogue: The Yin and Yang of the Relevance Battle 355Notes 359Index 371

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