Pioneering Advantage

No Competitor
Pioneering advantage
• The advantages accruing to a brand from being the first entrant in the
market

• Surviving early entrants or market pioneers appear to have

significantly larger shares than surviving late entrants in both
consumer and industrial markets
Pioneering advantage
• The advantages are remarkable in many aspects:

 Resistant to competitor's actions.

 Surviving the introduction of new brands.

 Innovation by existing rivals.

 Price competition.
Pioneering advantage
• In some cases (Vaseline) the pioneer holds onto a dominant position
while in others (Colgate), looses share to the competitor (Dant Kanti)
Pioneering advantage
• To make up ground, Colgate announced the launch of Cibaca Vedshakti
in August 2016, while HUL rolled out its cardamom and rock-salt-based
products under the Lever Ayush brand in August 2017. How successful
will these brands be?

• What theories can we use from consumer decision making and

psychology to address theses issues?
Pioneering advantage
• Vaseline Petroleum Jelly
Pioneering advantage
• What defines the evaluation of Vaseline petroleum jelly?
 Petroleum jelly is not a well-defined product category.
 How will a consumer evaluate petroleum jelly?
 Translucence and purity were the two attributes promoted by Vaseline
 How will you evaluate translucence and purity?
 Similar to, How will you evaluate the role of sweetness in evaluating
Coke?
 Is it the ambiguous product attributes that gives a decisive advantage to
Vaseline?
Pioneering advantage
• Inference making

• The pioneer helps to infer the nature of product attributes

Pioneering advantage when product
attributes are ambiguous
• What defines the evaluation of Vaseline petroleum jelly?

• The Pioneer defines the ideal point combination of the product

category, translucence and purity
• Similar to, Coke defining how sweet is sweetness
• Thus Pioneer is used to infer the meaning of a product category
with ambiguous product attributes
• The pioneer gives meaning and defines the ambiguous attribute
values
Pioneering advantage
Pioneering advantage
• What more?
Pioneering advantage
• Category formation

• The pioneer becomes the exemplar of the product category /consideration

set formation.
Pioneering advantage
• Why do the ambiguous product attributes become so strongly
associated with the pioneer?

• Pioneer becomes the category exemplar.

• Whenever one thinks of the product category the Pioneer is
inevitably recalled making it a strong category exemplar.
• Why?
Pioneering advantage
• The first brand tends to have a disproportionate effect on trial and
preference:

 The ideal point shifts towards the pioneer’s location in the

perceptual space.
 The pioneer becomes the prototype for the category.
 Asymmetric product comparison process differentiates the
pioneer from the later entrants to be perceived as mere copycats.
Pioneering advantage resulting from an
evaluative process - Summary
• When product attributes are ambiguous

 The ideal combination of features is determined by the combination

provided by the pioneering brand.
 The pioneer becomes the prototype for the category.
 Asymmetric feature comparison process differentiate the pioneer
from the followers and lead followers to be perceived as mere
copycats.
 Given these facts, how to launch a new entrant?
Pioneering advantage
• Given these considerations, what happens when a me too or a similar
competitor is launched?

 As me too products are launched, the Pioneer is cued each time,

making it more distinct and always a part of the consideration set.

 Me too brands are unable to generate sufficient market share to

remain viable, even with low price strategy.
Challenging the Pioneer
Dabur Honey Patanjali Honey
Pioneering advantage
• Why Patanjali Honey had a reasonable degree of success?
Pioneering advantage
• Move away from the pioneer.

• Create a differentiated segment, Patanjali.

• Position the me too in this segment, if you need to launch a me too.

Pioneering advantage
Pioneering Advantage:

Attribute values are not ambiguous

Pioneering advantage
• The late entrant is rated to be a better brand.

• Can the pioneer still maintain the lead?

Microwave popcorn

Pioneer Brand Late Entrant

• Fairly low cost per serving • Fairly low cost per serving
• Fairly low level of sodium per • Fairly low level of sodium per
serving serving
• Not salty • Not salty
• Fairly easy to prepare • Fairly easy to prepare
• Slightly less tough than other brands • Slightly butter flavour
• Very few kernels left unpopped • Slightly low in corn, grain flavour
The late entrant is rated to be superior to the pioneer
Pioneering advantage
• Pioneer maintains its leadership position.

• The late entrant is always compared with the pioneer.

• How will this become a disadvantage for products with unambiguous

product attributes?

• Asymmetric comparison process!!

Pioneering advantage
• How a sequential exposure to product information creates a learning
advantage beneficial to the pioneer?

 Pioneer represents the first entrant in a new product category

 Information about the first exemplar of a product category is considered to
be novel and interesting
 Because novel information is interesting it will be encoded in the long term
memory
 Repeated exposure to the pioneer will increase the amount of information
learnt about the pioneer
 The pioneer will be very closely associated with the product category
Pioneering advantage when product
attributes are not ambiguous
• How a sequential exposure to product information create a learning
advantage beneficial to the pioneer?

 The late entrant and the pioneer belongs to the same product category
 The pioneer being the prototypical exemplar of the product category will
make the common information redundant for the late entrants
 Exposure to redundant information will truncate the information search
process
 How will this help the pioneer?
Microwave popcorn
Pioneer Brand
• Fairly low cost per serving
• Fairly low level of sodium per
serving
• Not salty
• Fairly easy to prepare
• Slightly less tough than other
brands
• Very few kernels left unpopped
Late Entrant
• Fairly low cost per serving
• Fairly low level of sodium per
serving
• Not salty
• Fairly easy to prepare
• Slightly butter flavour
• Slightly low in corn, grain flavour
Pioneering advantage when product
attributes are not ambiguous
• How a sequential exposure to product information create a learning
advantage beneficial to the pioneer?

 This will arrest the exposure to features that are unique to the late
entrants, which make them superior to the pioneer
 Thus the recall of unique features will be more for the pioneer compared
to the late entrant
 The amount of redundant information increases as more brands enter the
market, attention to followers is likely to decrease as market clutter
increases