4 ms·

Companies are deathly afraid of introducing new brands and cling to the misguided idea of expanding their existing brand into unrelated territories. Usually th

Companies are deathly afraid of introducing new brands and cling to the misguided idea of expanding their existing brand into unrelated territories. Usually this results in the brand losing all meaning. So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory (social media). The technical aspect or what users actually want is a afterthought. Microsoft could release their own alternative to current social media apps but they won't just start small and build a new brand.

whatshisface 8y ago
Brands are typically associated with external reputations, but nobody has more exposure to a brand than the employees of the company that owns it. As a result the brand has greater power inside the company than anywhere else - however much a person will say "I'll use this because the name Skype makes me feel good," so much more will Microsoft people say, "I will approve of this because the Skype name makes me feel good."
ethbro 8y ago
> So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory Did someone mention Skype for Business? (... Live 360 ME)
- cm2187 8y ago
  And given how Microsoft trashed the skype brand, I wonder why they thought it was a good idea to use it for a new product.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    Even Skype for Business is now being deprecated, and Teams promoted in its place.
orev 8y ago
See also: Firefox
- wvenable 8y ago
  https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-brand/ https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-bra... I made a comment about this in a similar vain: Mozilla wants to overload the Firefox name to the point where it's totally meaningless. The success of the Firefox name is no doubt the reason but this fails to recognize that's not how names work. This direction is exactly the reason why Nintendo called their console "WiiU" and that turned out about as well as this ultimately will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Firefox being the name of a single product. The entire underlying premise of this redesign is flawed.
  - pssflops 8y ago
    What is especially notable about this is that Nintendo recently announced that their Just Dance 2019 game will come out on Wii and NOT the WiiU.
    - Dreami 8y ago
      Just for nitpicking, the Wikipedia article says Wii U too (although I know that was a failure, I was just looking for this because it seemed interesting)
    - Jonnax 8y ago
      Just dance is made by Ubisoft not Nintendo.

whatshisface 8y ago

Brands are typically associated with external reputations, but nobody has more exposure to a brand than the employees of the company that owns it. As a result the brand has greater power inside the company than anywhere else - however much a person will say "I'll use this because the name Skype makes me feel good," so much more will Microsoft people say, "I will approve of this because the Skype name makes me feel good."

ethbro 8y ago

> So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory Did someone mention Skype for Business? (... Live 360 ME)

cm2187 8y ago
And given how Microsoft trashed the skype brand, I wonder why they thought it was a good idea to use it for a new product.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  Even Skype for Business is now being deprecated, and Teams promoted in its place.

orev 8y ago