From"Aiming to be the First"to"Being the First":Research on Brand Breakthrough Path under Category Innovation
Ries and Ries(2004)proposed that categories are species in the business world and are the key force hidden behind brands.Consumers"think in categories and express in brands";they pointed out in their book"The Origin of Brands":Brand is the representative of the category in the minds of potential customers.The key to building a brand is to create new categories.Category innovation is an important way to build a brand.Its core essence is to reshape the value of"aiming to be the first",aiming to break out of the"red ocean"competition dilemma by building new categories.This has important guiding significance for activatingmicroeconomic vitality at present,especially for the high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises.Famous advertising research expert Larry Light believes that the future marketing war will be a competition between brands for market dominance.If new categories in the Chinese context want to move from"aiming to be the first"to"Being the First",they still need to further explore how to seize the upsurge of category innovation and unlock the underlying value logic from category innovation to brand breakthrough.Existing research is mainly based on exploring the breakout paths of existing corporate brand development situations.However,there is relatively insufficient research on how small and medium-sized enterprises achieve brand building and breakthrough based on the context of category innovation,and there is little in-depth exploration of the key factors and breakthrough logic.In view of the special significance and value of category innovation in meeting people's growing needs for a better life,this study selected Xiaoxiandun as the case analysis object,adopted a longitudinal single case research method,and focused on exploring"How to occupy the brand potential of'aiming to be the first'through category innovation?What is the logic of brand breakthrough from'aiming to be the first'to'Being the First'?"two research questions.It is expected to provide useful reference for the brand cultivation of small and medium-sized enterprises in China in the new era.This study found that:(1)Category innovation is a process of identifying gaps in the market based on user pain points and then achieving head-level cognitive construction.The branding of new categories includes three core connotations:pain point functionalization,functional productization,and product branding.The brand breakthrough under the category innovation depends on the implementation of the naming action from the blank mental category innovation to the branding of the new product category to the brand equity of the head brand of the new product category,and constructs the theoretical logic of brand fit from"aiming to be the first"to"being the first".(2)Brand potential energy is a new dimension that constitutes brand equity.The final brand equity under category innovation covers brand potential energy,brand recognition and brand image.(3)It is proposed that the internal mechanism of brand cultivation under category innovation is brand value innovation,which is manifested as brand functional value innovation,brand experiential value innovation and brand symbolic value innovation.The main contributions of this study:(1)It is proposed that the"intangible+tangible+intangible"brand fit theory based on the user's core blank mind as the logical starting point.This breaks through the logical starting point setting of the existing fit theory and is a true"people-oriented"brand cultivation strategy.It provides new theoretical logic for enterprises to explore and practice the micro-logic of"people's yearning for a better life"in the new era.(2)It was discovered that another unique brand equity that is different from brand recognition and brand image is established in the category development stage—brand potential energy.This provides new insights and ideas for the development of more entrepreneurs,emerging local brands,and even old brands.At the same time,it also enriches relevant research on product reshaping and brand equity based on the customer's perspective in the era of saturated demand.(3)This study deconstructs the underlying logic of category innovation and is a useful supplement to the classic innovation theory.(4)This study discovered four positioning advancements in brand cultivation under category innovation,which gradually formed the endogenous growth momentum of brand value innovation.This further opens up the logic of value innovation and provides theoretical guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve brand breakthrough from"aiming to be the first"to"Being the First".
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