Definition: Best in class is a product that is considered superior to other competitors within the same category or segment. This products offer the highest level of quality and/or utility in comparison to its peers.
What Does Best in Class Mean?
Consumer’s associations and critics are constantly reviewing products and services to classify them according to their quality. Their perspectives serve as guidelines for prospective buyers but, ultimately, it is customers who award the status of best in class to a product. A marketing strategy of promoting a product as a best-in-class has its limitations, since customer’s experiences with the item will determine whether that categorization is adequate or not.
In order to achieve this, the product has to be positioned above all other similar choices, not only through marketing, but through actual quality and fitness. A product that has high quality components but fails to meet some of the consumer’s essential needs can’t be regarded as a best-in-class. Nonetheless, a best-in-class product is not necessarily the one with the highest quality in the market as a whole, since this classification is normally given depending on the segment that is being served. The best in class in a low-price category might not be a high-quality product, instead, it is one that provides the highest price-to-value ratio for consumers.
Example
Loomis Underwear Co. is a company with many years in the men underwear market. They currently serve many different segments of this market through a variety of products specifically designed to suit the needs of different types of customers. The company recently designed a product line called “Machos”, which is a high quality line, where the best fabrics are employed and a very detailed design process is mixed with many years of researching the needs of high-end customers.
They are being called the “luxurious underpants”. The product is in itself expensive but it is not its price what makes it a best in class product, it is the way customers reacted after they were launched. The product attracted in a few years only 10% of the market share for high-end men underwear but it appears customers has left other brands, not because of their price, but because they came to be loyal to the top-of-the-line quality and utility of this new underwear line. They are very much desired among its target audience.
