Over the years, one of our key branding concepts has been “Create a new category you can be first in.” For example, Red Bull was the first energy drink. Starbucks, the first high-end coffee shop. BlackBerry, the first wireless email.
For at least a dozen years, however, the business media have been filled with stories about “convergence.” Categories would be coming together. Television with computers, for example. Companies, especially in the high-tech industries were spending billions of dollars trying to accomplish this with very little success.
In studying history, we found that the opposite was true. Categories did not converge; they diverged. The mainframe computer, for example did not converge with any other category. It diverged, creating endless opportunities to build new brands. Apple, Dell, Compaq, Microsoft, Intel, etc.
We felt this was an important story to tell marketers everywhere.
Posted by Laura Ries at October 11, 2004 10:41 AM | TrackBack