Here is Lodish, taking on a few questions that Business Line posed to him over the email.

Question: Positioning, targeting and segmentation, when well executed, ensure that the competition is kept at bay. However, the insulation can get to be porous, and inroads by peers possible, when the brand develops product fatigue and deserves a quick re-look in terms of positioning and/or segmentation. Should one be pro-active and constantly tweak the brand suitably or venture into a ‘new improved’ version by cannibalising the existing one and launching a new one?

Answer: Any time either your customer needs or desires change and/or your competition changes, you need to assess what you should be doing to retain or improve your perceptual position. If that means cannibalising your existing product, so be it.

Q: By virtue of its first-mover advantage a brand rules the roost in its region for many decades. A new entrant knocks at the door with promises of greater delivery and more benefits at a much lower rate.

The numero uno position of the first brand is threatened. Should it quickly reduce its price to the much lower level announced by its competitor or should it fight it out in the marketplace banking on customer-loyalty and its own brand-salience?