Verizon’s Naming of the Droid Deserves Preparation-H for WTH?
Full disclosure: I don’t use an iPhone. I still believe that coverage is more important than gadgetry, so I’m keeping my reliable, trusty Verizon Blackberry by my side, and no, I will not be switching service providers just to pay more money for less coverage.
But in any case, I just happened to catch the ad campaign for Verizon’s new iPhone killer, the Motorola Droid, and I found myself asking: What were they thinking? From a branding perspective, this new product name is about as inspirational as hemorrhoid cream.
What’s in a product name? Everything. When I hear the word “droid,” it doesn’t make me feel happy, content, inspired, fun, or anything remotely related to personal or workplace productivity.
The brand persona initiated by the “droid” name is the exact opposite of what Verizon needs when competing against Apple’s brand of user-friendliness, easy navigation, clean design, and personable identity.
With “Droid,” it sounds like Verizon should have used Preparation-H for their naming scheme. Moreover, the whole notion that they can take a bite out of Apple by highlighting features—like full keyboard, simultaneous apps, and open development—just reinforces Verizon’s lack of understanding about what makes the iPhone so popular.
It’s the brand persona, stupid.
Sorry, Verizon. Love your service, but your product naming needs help.
In Case You’re Still Thinking Social Media is Inconsequential to Your Brand
I fully admit, until as recently as this year, I held the firm belief that social media was nothing more than the faddish playground of teenyboppers and techno-geeks. This, despite the urgings of colleagues and peers that social media is in fact, a game changing brand management tool. I have come to see the light (evidenced by my participation in this blog), and here is a prime example why: Google Sidewiki.
Sidewiki is a relatively new tool that allows any user with a Google login to post comments (positive or negative, benign or mischievous) about any webpage that will appear in a sidebar frame of the browser for any other user to see. Furthermore, the owners of the website have no power to remove said comments (Google reserves sole moderation rights). Imagine if you will, the din of a flame war going on directly adjacent to your homepage for the world, and more importantly your prospects, to see. Yikes! (see The Google Sidewiki Controversy) Even more scary, the idea that these posters are now given the power to define your brand for you if you are not monitoring carefully and maintaining a steady stream of corrective comments. (see Don’t Blame Google Sidewiki if Your Brand Takes Another Hit) Brand management in the age of social media is not really a new idea anymore, but this particular application brings into shocking clarity the need for such management due to its extreme proximity to your most important outward facing channel, your website.
Google Sidewiki is still relatively new and adoption rates are unclear at this point but regardless of any personal feelings I may hold about Google overstepping here, the point is clear, social media, while no panacea, is a force that must be recognized in strategic brand management for the foreseeable future.
Google Sidewiki may just be the flavor of the month social media tool, but make no mistake; other tools are currently under development in some garage somewhere in the world that will one day be the next outlet demanding your direct and immediate attention. The only way to truly prepare for the onslaught is to make sure you have a well thought out and defensible brand platform and a strategy that allows for the rapid adoption of new channels to manage that brand.
What’s Left When Trust is Lost? Restoring Brand Confidence is Pivotal, Not Optional.
As reported in BtoB magazine, a newly released survey states that “senior business executives have lost trust in a wide array of service providers in the past year of economic turmoil.” The online survey, which has been conducted annually since 2003 by the Financial Times and Doremus Decision Dynamics, queried 470 senior executives around the world in July.
Among the worst performing service providers were: commercial banks (-31%), investment banks (-29%), management consulting (-17%), insurance (-15%), telecommunications (-11%), auditors (-7%), tech consulting (-6%), software (-5%), and hardware (-3%).
In a year defined by a lack of trust—spurred by broken promises from financial institutions, Wall Street, bankrupted corporations, and politicians—the question to ask in branding is: How does one restore credibility?
I view this as an opportunity rather than a crisis. It’s a tremendous chance for marketers to revamp their brand promises by:
- Identifying gaps between customer perceptions and your brand promise as delivered by marketing, advertising, and public relations.
- Listening to your sphere of influence, and watching social media outlets to discover what customers are complaining about.
- Redefining your brand (in terms of both visuals and content) to enhance credibility, then redeploying across your marketing communications enterprise.
It won’t be easy; you can bank on that. But there’s much to gain, and even more to lose. So be sure to define your new brand before your competitors define it for you.
6 Simple Steps To A Better Logo
1. Focus on the core message. A logo can be anything from a straight forward word mark to a more elaborate icon. Just make sure it communicates who you are and what you do.
2. The more, the merrier. The more sketches and ideas, the better. Usually the first ideas are the most obvious and therefore expected, so push until you can’t push any more.
3. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I can’t stress this enough. Start design in one color, preferably black. In my opinion, if it doesn’t work in black, it doesn’t work. This also keeps the focus on the form, without being swayed by extras like color variations. Remember to keep lots of unnecessary details to a minimum.
4. Small is better. Too many times I see logos that look great large, but once they are shrunk to a typical size, they lose important details. Make sure that the logo works when it is sized to about an inch and a half.
5. Get other opinions. Find out other people’s first impression. What kind of feel/tone does it give off? Do they see something you don’t? Could there be a negative connotation?
6. Add the finishing touches. Once you have found the “it” logo, then you can start to add in color, dimension, etc. as needed. This is now the icing on the cake.