Unique now… or never

The Brand is the Company Driver in the New Value Economy
Jesper Kunde

The age of the product economy is coming to an end; today it's difficult to surprise someone with a new product or service. In a few days, a unique novelty will have been copied by competitors. There are no more trade secrets, and your exclusive technology cannot remain exclusive for long.

How to stay unique and win customers' commitment when your product represents nothing outstanding? There's one way out: open your door for the new economy - the value economy. Jesper Kunde, the Danish marketing guru and author of the international bestseller "Corporate Religion", shares his thoughts on how you should redefine yourself and your company in order to create an intangible product: unique value. Nowadays battles over a customer take place in the customer's mind, not on supermarket shelves. In a situation when the physical market is flooded with goods, it is crucial to offer something exclusive in the "metaphysical" market if you really don't want to be left behind. "While [these] material values may be important there is more to life - the employee of the future knows this and will seek meaning and value. I am convinced that this change in behavior and attitudes will be the strongest driving force in the market of the future", the author argues. The famous management guru Tom Peters has called "Unique…" 'an excellent book of an indisputable master of value positioning'.

Using examples of the greatest companies of modern times (such as Virgin, Nike, Nokia, Levi's, Mercedes-Benz, VW, Procter & Gamble, Giorgio Armani, Heinz and others), whose histories and experience serve as illustrations to the book, Kunde shows how to move from promoting a product to promoting a brand, how to create an 'energetic, comprehensive, inspiring, provocative, profitable and firm value position', focusing all your strength and resources on reaching this goal.

The future belongs to a strong value position, to a brand system, to uniqueness. You can't waste your precious time any longer: become unique "NOW… or never". This is the message of both Kunde and the new economic reality.



Translation Copyright © Stockholm School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, 2005, 352 pages.
5-315-00026-5

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