The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (Creating and Sustainability Successful Growth)

by Clayton

Some executives worry that a low-end disruptive product might harm their established brand. They can escape this problem by appending a second word to their corporate brand. We call this word a purpose brand because it communicates to a circumstance—to a job that the disruptive product should be hired to do. If customers hire a disruptive product to do the wrong job, it will disappoint and thereby tarnish the corporation’s brand.21 If the disruptive product is hired for the job that it was designed to do, it will delight the customer and thereby strengthen the corporate brand—even though the disruptive product’s functionality may not be as good as that of mainstream products. This is because customers define quality within the context of the job to be done.