And after that gentle title, Simon Silvester launches into:
NEW THINKING
And after that gentle title, Simon Silvester launches into:
Maybe it’s not our products that are getting commoditized. Maybe it’s the customer. Consider this great quote about customer commoditization from the Harvard Business Review:
Scion, offshoot of Toyota and heir to the fortune, is dead. Sometimes criticized for its ugly appearance: “A car which can easily be mistaken for an abandoned fridge when parked,” it tried hard to be one of the cool kids. But, in the end, it didn’t make enough young friends, it cost its parents too much money, so they killed it.
Ever since the massive success of the Intel Inside initiative, the power and potential of ingredient branding has been well understood. As the name implies, ingredient branding means giving a component of a product its own brand identity. It can be a tantalizing proposition for those looking for new ways to differentiate.
Some years ago, I hosted a blind tasting beer party where everyone voted for their favorite and least favorite beers from a collection of microbrews and mainstream brands. Although there was no clear winner, there was definitely an outright loser.