Brewed Fresh Daily

I'm just about finished with Al Ries' book Focus: The Future of your Company may Depend on it. On of the things that I've been thinking about is encapsulated here:

Building a multi-step focus In 1921, Ford had one brand with more than 50% of the market, GM had 7 brands and only 12%. Alfred Sloan from GM then developed a multi-step focus, but with very clear price and brand breaks, a strategy that paid off with time. Now, they�re back to an unfocused range: if you have $50k do you buy a flash Chevrolet or a cheap Cadillac? What can you do? (1) follow the market and diversify your range (2) hang in there with the original focus (3) launch new brands to capture the changing market Six steps to an effective multi-step focus: 1. Focus on a common product area 2. Select a single attribute to segment (e.g., price) 3. Set up rigid distinctions between brands 4. Create different not similar brand names 5. Launch a new brand only when you can create a new category 6. Keep control of the brands at the highest level

Which leads me to two questions. First, how would you create a multi-step focus for a company that provides network management? Second, how would a large organization (say, a city i.e. Cleveland) go about developing a multi-step focus?