New Aaker Book: Winning the Relevance War

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today more than ever, it's relevance, not preference, that ultimately wins the hearts and minds of customers and builds businesses, and noted brand guru David Aaker shares how to get there in his just-released new book.

"Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant" (http://www.prophet.com/thinking/view/483-brand-relevance – Jossey-Bass, January 2011, $32.95), shares four key undertakings that will enable businesses to attain and win the relevance war.

"Relevance is what makes the difference between winning by becoming isolated from competitors versus being mired in a difficult market environment where differentiation is hard to achieve and often short-lived," says Aaker.

Aaker is Vice Chairman of Prophet (www.prophet.com) and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. Prophet is a strategic brand and marketing consultancy that helps clients win by delivering inspired and actionable ideas.

The book, Aaker's 15th, uses more than two dozen case studies of brands and businesses that have won the relevance war – Prius, Whole Foods Market and the iPod among them. The four key ways he examines for achieving it are:

• Find new concepts by becoming proficient in creative thinking and cultivating organizational creativity.
• Evaluate a concept's promise by examining three key questions: Is there a market? Can we compete and win? Will a market leadership position endure?
• Define and manage the category/subcategory so as to differentiate it from others, appeal to customers, deliver benefits and drive choice decisions.
• Create barriers to others' entry to prolong relevance. Barriers can range from investment hurdles to difficult-to-replicate customer relationships.

"It's increasingly hard to win the preference battles today," says Aaker. "Lasting success comes from offering something so different and special that it creates its own unique category – and customers see no alternatives to consider."

As a leading and award-winning thinker on brands, Aaker has published over 100 articles in addition to his books. A columnist with the American Marketing Association's Marketing News, he is often quoted on brand topics. He also delves into brand and marketing issues in his blog, Aaker on Brands, (www.davidaaker.com), and via Twitter @davidaaker (www.twitter.com/davidaaker).

Media contact: Sally Saville Hodge, Hodge Media Strategies, [email protected] or 773.325.9282.

SOURCE David Aaker