11 THE LAW OF FELLOWSHIP
In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands.
Greed often gets in the way of common sense. The dominant brand in a category often tries to broaden its appeal in order to capture every last bit of market share.
“If we served beer and wine,” the CEO of McDonald’s once said, “we might eventually have 100 percent of the food-service market.”
Unlikely. The law of expansion suggests the opposite. When you broaden your brand, you weaken it. Look what happened when McDonald’s tried to broaden its appeal to the adult market with the Arch Deluxe sandwich. Its market share fell, and ultimately it was forced to discontinue the product.
Which brings us to the law of fellowship. Not only should the dominant ...
Get The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
