4 ms·

Of course branding is important. Branding is one of the principle ways "value" is built. Building something people want is not enough. After the building bit,

Of course branding is important. Branding is one of the principle ways "value" is built. Building something people want is not enough. After the building bit, you need to convince people to use whatever it is you created. What is more, often a brand contributes the majority of a product's value. Consider the entire apparel industry. So if you can't figure out how to brand a product and you can't figure out how to market a product and you can't figure out how to sell a product, I don't think it is very clever to build the product. And Google and Yahoo do mean something. They are whimsical and lyrical and memorable. I don't think these would "take": allsearch wesearch gosearch searchnow

breck 17y ago
> What is more, often a brand contributes the majority of a product's value. Consider the entire apparel industry. I disagree. I think you're confusing cause and effect. I'm sure Gap, Armani, Gucci, etc., started out with great products and amateur brands. As the products gained traction, they gained more resources to develop the brand. > So if you can't figure out how to brand a product and you can't figure out how to market a product and you can't figure out how to sell a product, I don't think it is very clever to build the product. Building a product and finding a market for it is step 1. Branding/growth is step 2.
ghshephard 17y ago
Marc Andreessen said something around 2000 that really stuck with me with regards to spending on marketing/advertising. His take was basically you create something that has underlying value, and is useful to customers, and _then_ you advertise. If you try and do it the other way around, build excitement around a brand prior to the value existing, you are just flushing your dollars away. The brand becomes an extension of the underlying value - marketing is just one mechanism to communicate that value in building a brand. I do think the software/online applications are a different type of industry with regards to branding than apparel - the value is immediately more apparent (Taking nothing away from Calvin Klein and friends). More on Naming: In 1999 our company was supposed to "run the cloud", and in fact, be the biggest/loudest company to do so: ergo: LoudCloud In 2002, after the crash, we sold the infrastructure portions, and needed to come up with a name for a company that would provide the Software for Operations. ergo: Opsware

breck 17y ago

> What is more, often a brand contributes the majority of a product's value. Consider the entire apparel industry. I disagree. I think you're confusing cause and effect. I'm sure Gap, Armani, Gucci, etc., started out with great products and amateur brands. As the products gained traction, they gained more resources to develop the brand. > So if you can't figure out how to brand a product and you can't figure out how to market a product and you can't figure out how to sell a product, I don't think it is very clever to build the product. Building a product and finding a market for it is step 1. Branding/growth is step 2.

ghshephard 17y ago

Marc Andreessen said something around 2000 that really stuck with me with regards to spending on marketing/advertising. His take was basically you create something that has underlying value, and is useful to customers, and _then_ you advertise. If you try and do it the other way around, build excitement around a brand prior to the value existing, you are just flushing your dollars away. The brand becomes an extension of the underlying value - marketing is just one mechanism to communicate that value in building a brand. I do think the software/online applications are a different type of industry with regards to branding than apparel - the value is immediately more apparent (Taking nothing away from Calvin Klein and friends). More on Naming: In 1999 our company was supposed to "run the cloud", and in fact, be the biggest/loudest company to do so: ergo: LoudCloud In 2002, after the crash, we sold the infrastructure portions, and needed to come up with a name for a company that would provide the Software for Operations. ergo: Opsware