EPISODE 140

CHRONICLE: January 26th, 2024

Content from Bryan’s new Award Winning, Bestselling Book

The Visionary Brand, The Success Formula Behind the World's Most Visionary Brands.

• Readers Favorite Award Winner: Best, Non-fiction, Marketing book
• Amazon Bestseller.

THE VISIONARY BRAND | Product Extinction | How to Eliminate Products & Gain Market Share

" Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." – Carl Sagan

Once a visionary brand successfully executes a breakaway/drawdown strategy, it must build a bridge to maintain the product lifecycle. To sustain a consistent flow of products from your pipeline, you must bring some products to extinction, sometimes at the height of their popularity. Implementing this strategy is critical but risky, as you bet the company on the next generation of products. However, unless you risk something, you gain nothing.

As discussed earlier, the Sony Walkman was one of the most recognizable case studies of product lifecycle saturation. This was a breakaway product when first introduced. However, Sony still needed to fully embrace the drawdown and extinction mentality fully, instead deciding to let it ride for some thirty years with only minor revisions. This strategy proved successful for a time, but this is a rare case. The danger with deploying such a strategy is you can get ambushed by your competitors, and you inevitably become a follower, no longer a leader. Having the market perception of being an innovative leader in your category carries with it prestige and privilege.

Most companies would assume any brand deploying the breakaway strategy must have a new product in the pipeline that will change the norm, establish a new way of thinking, or redefine a process. This was not the case with Sony and the Walkman—revolutionary in its day, it had a nice run for some 20 years but eventually died slowly in its last 10. The clincher was when Apple introduced the iPod, at which point it was game over for the Walkman. Ironically, the Walkman inspired Steve to find a better way to listen to music that was not so cumbersome or limited in portability. In analyzing the Walkman lifecycle, Apple knew better than to repeat Sony's mistakes, incorporating extinction in their product pipeline and having the courage to pull products at the peak of their popularity to keep their community hungry for what’s coming next.

Building a consistent and sustainable product extinction lifecycle flow creates limited supply, increasing demand on both the back end (drawdown) and the front end (breakaway). This has driven many brands, such as Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Adidas, TaylorMade, and Microsoft, to become some of the most valuable. These iconic brands have stood the test of time by building an innovative pipeline of products or services supported by a breakaway culture. Each of these brands succeeds by creating and adapting over a series of product iterations, adopting technologies that drive customer demand, and manipulating supply cycles through planned product extinction.

Here are some critical points in adopting an Extinction Strategy and Gaining Valuable Market Share.

1. Build a Breakaway Product Pipeline | This is critical to sustainable innovation.
2. Identify your following Breakaway or Incremental Product | Upon the release of the current product generation, this is the Apple strategy; they already have a product being commercialized that will replace the current version.
3. Eliminate the Current Version at the Peak of the Early Adopter Phase | The Extinction creates an “Innovator” NET GEN NEED and a “Late Adopter” WANT.
4. Release the Next Version | Timing is critical, and product commercialization is vital to pull this off.
5. Rinse, Repeat, & Recycle | The cycle of executing this strategy will align all products along the Supply & Demand Curve. Rare for a Premium brand, and extremely powerful!

Building a product innovation pipeline that can sustain continual and more rapid product extinction is where successful visionary brands move beyond their competitors. By holding to this Vision rooted in these Extinction principles, you will also successfully build sustainable brand value for both your shareholders and customers.

Stay True, Stay Authentic, be Different, and be Great!

Enjoy the Journey!

Bryan Smeltzer, President

LiquidMind Inc.

#TheVisionaryChroniclesPodcast

#TheVisionaryBrandBook

@LiquidMindsite.com

@BryanSmeltzer.com

© All rights reserved, Bryan Smeltzer, 2023

Bryan Smeltzer is a consumer products business executive and entrepreneur. He has held executive-level roles in business development, Product, and marketing with some of the world's most prestigious brands, including Oakley, TaylorMade, Adidas, K-Swiss, and Schutt Sports, among other international brands. He also founded a men’s apparel brand, successfully running a profitable business for ten years, eventually selling to a VC firm.

He also hosts a Podcast called The Visionary Chronicles, ranked as the #1 Visionary and Top 50 Marketing Podcasts by Feedspot for 2022 & 2023, and recently finished his first bestselling book, The Visionary Brand, The Success Formula Behind the World’s Most Visionary Brands, and recently received the prestigious Readers Favorite Award for BEST Non-fiction, Marketing Genre book.

With the book's release, Bryan created The Visionary Brand MasterCourse. The Master Course site at The VisionaryFiles.com includes a Master Course with 18 Video Learning segments and almost 2 hours of Visionary lessons training. Over the past five weeks, over 1,500 brand leaders and Entrepreneurs have taken the Master Course! Unleash your potential as a brand leader and take the Master Course.

He is also a member of the Board of Advisors at UCI’s BCIE along with their New Venture Program, an Innovation Advisor at the UCI’s Applied Innovation program at the Cove, a Mentor/Advisor to UCLA’s Price Center Venture Accelerator Program, and a Mentor/Advisor at the San Diego Sports Innovators Accelerator (SDSI) center.

Bryan oversees LiquidMind Inc., a global brand strategy firm that partners with start-ups and establishes mid to large-cap consumer brands to empower businesses to think differently, be different, drive a passionate culture, and execute relentlessly.

You can contact or  follow him at;

email | bryan@LiquidMindsite.com

Facebook | @bryansmeltzer33

Instragram | @bryan_smeltzer

X | @bryansmeltzer

LinkedIN | linkedin.com/in/bryansmeltzer/

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