The Hindu Business Line : Steer clear of `Swiss Army knife thinking'

THE first salesman, they say, was the one in the Garden of Eden who enticed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. So, it is not surprising when a book on marketing harks back to Darwin's idea of evolution, which is what the father-daughter duo Al and Laura Ries do in The Origin of Brands, published by Harper Business (www.harpercollins.com) .

"New species arise from divergence of an existing species," notes the blurb and there lies the secret of how man came from monkey, as also a clue to the branding process. Therefore, "opportunities cannot be found where most people and companies look — in the convergence of existing categories like television and the computer, the cell phone and the Internet." The book that exhorts you to `discover the natural laws of product innovation and business survival' is dedicated to `divergence' — "the least understood, most powerful force in the universe."

The intro explains a bit more: "What has happened in nature is also happening in the world of products and services. Eventually, every category will diverge and become two or more categories, creating endless opportunities to build brands." If it seems too much to link biology and brands, the authors ask a pointed question: "Did you ever see a tree in which two branches converged to form a single branch?" and proceed to give examples from the commercial world. From one branch called computer, we have now mainframe, midrange, network, personal, laptop and handheld computers. Similarly, from telephone, there has been divergence leading to cordless, headset, cell, satellite and regular phones. In contrast, those that don't diverge die, as in the case of typewriters that are now in a fossil state: "in somebody's basement or attic and possibly listed on eBay."

The word `evolution' is misleading, declares the book, because it implies gradual transformation from one species to another. "This is not what happens in nature." Shocking, because we always thought things happened that way and applied the same to our business too — making products "better, cheaper, and more reliable than ever."

Have we not saturated our markets with all possible products and services? Not yet, say the authors. "In truth, the vast majority of the most beautiful and the most wonderful new products are still to come. And each one of them creates an opportunity for the introduction of a new brand." That is, if you resist "the lures of the convergence crowd" and steer clear of `Swiss Army knife thinking.' Something that never dies, as shown by scores of cases that the book presents. For instance, in 1959, the US Navy and post office experimented with a new form of mail delivery, "by guided missiles." Or, Paul Moller who has spent four decades developing the M400 Skycar, a personal flying machine that's as easy to use as a car: "Today, $50 million, forty-three patents, and three wives later, his dream has still not taken off." Convergence captures the imagination of the gullible, as much as mermaid, centaur, hydra, Batman and so forth prove. Yet, what's okay in comic books need not work as commercial products.

Chapter 14 observes that the most difficult job in marketing, and also the most rewarding, is "creating a new category." Every product needs two names, not just one, say the authors. The two are: "A brand name and a category name." What's the difference? "People think generic first, brand second." Don't commit the common mistake of overlooking the need to create a new category, else the result is confusion. "When your brand doesn't stand for anything, you have to compensate by increasing your marketing expenditure. The largest advertiser in the US is the automobile industry," say the Rieses, and that's because it's "one of the most dysfunctional industries" with everybody making everything and marketing everything under every one of their brand names. "Economics 101 would seem to indicate that the entire automobile industry would be better off if each brand were focussed on a single category." But, "Economics 101 has been superseded in the marketplace by CRM 101. And the first law of customer relationship management is `take good care of your customers.'"

Do you hear the origins beckon?

BookMark@thehindu.co.in

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