If market evolution is a drama, those who put on the best performance will have the audience at their feet. But who (or what) becomes a hero most?

As in every good story, heroes are as much a question of how as they are of when. Unlike the majority of branding techniques, marketplace drama theory can help answer both questions.

Each act of the drama calls for a particular type of hero. For example, when the iPod first hit the market during the crisis act in 2001, it was a sonic warrior. The iTunes Store, in turn, entered the market during the redress act in 2003 as a sonic pacifist.

All players (managers, consumers, public policy makers) can use the marketplace drama framework to pull off the best performance at the best time...