Sometimes a brand comes to define a category – which can be both a curse and a blessing. In the short to medium term it can exploit all the advantages of leadership in terms of brand awareness and availability, but at some point, the chances are it gets complacent or it fails to sufficiently react to new challengers or shifts in the market – to the detriment of both the brand and the category.
For soft drinks company Britvic, Robinsons was such a brand: it has a long history, 80% awareness and represents half the squash (dilutes) category in the...