
The Billion-Dollar Branding Question: Differentiate or Category-Create?
It’s the ultimate hindsight question: should we or shouldn’t we create a new product category? Exhibit A: a promising new product—coffee with twice the caffeine of regular coffee. Now that makes for a compelling brand differentiator in my book. But let’s look at what history says... In 1985 when Wet Planet Beverages developed Jolt Cola, it was simply marketed as a cola drink with a kick. Where is Jolt Cola today? Correct. The previous year in Germany, however, Red Bull was cr