Peter F. Drucker

'The critical question is not 'How can I achieve?' but 'What can I contribute?'

Brands on the Social Web: Creating Mind Share Through Social Media

Posted: November 11th, 2009 | Author: Isman Tanuri | Filed under: Branding, Social Media, The Customer | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments

Updated 13/11: This post also appears as a guest blog post on Penn Olson.

I was recently reading an early chapter of Al and Laura Ries’ ‘The Origin of Brands’ and was struck by this concept:

The world’s best and long-lasting brands were typically created by a divergence from an existing product category and that these brands continue to survive not because of their ‘share of market’ but for being first in the mind of consumers.

Consider these examples of divergence and its disregard for market size of the day:

  • What was the size of the cola market the day Coca Cola was launched?
  • What was the market size of Mac users when Apple launched their Apple I system?
  • How about the size of the personal computer market the day Microsoft launched their MS-DOS platform?
  • And when McDonald first introduced the fast-food hamburger to the American public, what was the size of the fast-food market?

The answer to these questions: Zero.

However, these brands have proven they have what it takes to survive and prosper all these years. So, why is this possible?
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