> Brand is a proxy for the level of functionality delivered by that brand. 100% agreed. > People didn't switch to GMail because it was a "cool" brand, Less a

> Brand is a proxy for the level of functionality delivered by that brand. 100% agreed. > People didn't switch to GMail because it was a "cool" brand, Less agreed on this. Brand is also a proxy for PR, marketing, and the general image of the company. Gmail had an awesome feature set - better than its competitors at the time, but also spread wildly by word of mouth. At that time, Google was an exciting company for most people (it still is by and large, but that's another discussion). Gmail's "invite-only" onboarding was done well and made it exclusive. FB did the same thing when they rolled out to one school at a time. Ultimately, I think we're on the same page. People want good UX; they want a product/company that their friends recommend; they want something that just works.