Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant

Chapter 4. MARKET DYNAMICS IN THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

I'm going to democratize the automobile. When I'm through, everybody will be able to afford one, and about everyone will have one.

—Henry Ford

Daring ideas are like chessman moved forward; they may be beaten, but they start a winning game.

—Goethe

Consider the history of the automobile market during the last century. There were a dozen or so innovations that have created new business arenas, such as the enclosed car; the assembly line; the GM spectrum of cars from the Chevrolet to the Cadillac; installment selling; the automatic transmission; rental cars; the Japanese cars of the 1970s that came in standard and deluxe versions, eliminating a host of choices; station wagons; convertibles; minivans; ...