DISQUS

sg · 3 years ago

brand is indeed becomin everything.. one must not frgt.. that v r the one who make brands & not the company. so if there's a new company providing a gud alternative there's no harm in trying them out. but ppl are concerned of frauds & being victimized of scams or company shutdowns.. microsoft, lg, samsung weren't branded by birth.. but these firms are now using more than helping comsumers by high-prices products. big pity.

anyways, u can read a blog on IT & CE research at http://www.rncos.com/Blog/itresearch.html

thx & happy bloggin.

ScottA · 3 years ago

Scott, you told us earlier in the week that "Media is about control of a pipe." I didn't agree with that statement, but now you seem to be saying something different which I can get behind "...brands are the only thing that still matters in media." Yes! Why? Because trusted/recognized brands provide ordinary people with trusted/recognized access points into unruly/decentralized networks. So it's not about controlling the pipe or the network for that matter. It is, however, about controlling access to the network.

J. Jeffryes · 3 years ago

Well, if you can't control the pipe, what do you have left? The brand.

It's like reservations-only restaraunts vs. nightclubs that are open to everyone. The first can control who gets in, and who does what. The second controls nothing but the venue itself, the atmosphere and feel of participating in it. The brand.

Media is moving to the nightclub model. They create a great venue, a place that has a good look and feel, and they throw open the doors. Their success then hinges on who shows up, and what they do there. The people and their actions are what make the brand, the brand just serves as the space in which those actions take place.

Howard Owens · 3 years ago

Good post. I linked to it. You've expressed something I've thought about many times over the years.

Kurt · 3 years ago

I'm not sure I fully agree. Aren't we putting the cart before the horse? Brands are built by communities, not vice versa. While a successful community may grow because of brand awareness, the initial success itself is about service quality. My mom might use Google because of brand awareness, but my nephew's loyalty is fickle, and it will go where the quality is. I think I'm saying what is intuitive - brand is only half the equation. You cant control your brand, you can only control the quality of your service. The example's you site as successful - Digg, YouTube, Gawker, the have not been successful because of their "brand", their brand was built by their focus on their product.

All that said, if you are able to build a product that garners positive brand awarenes, you should do everything in your power to protect what you have built. The irony is that the best way to protect that brand is to continue to stay service focused - and pretend you dont care about your "brand", you care about your community.

Scott Karp · 3 years ago

J, I like the metaphor.

Kurt, you're right, the inability to control brands through mass media communications means that the product/service itself is the only thing you can control. This is true now for all brands, not just media brands. I think the larger observation for media is that in the absence of control over distribution channels ("pipe"), media brands are where all of the value now accrues.

Fraser · 3 years ago

"...again, a community-defined brand, but a brand nonetheless."

I really like this thought!

As branding increasingly becomes a personal, two-way interaction between an individual and a company the aggregation of the individuals into a community, and the successful aggregation of their brands, will be the competitive advantage that forms long-term value.

Interesting thought Scott, thanks for it.

Alan Moore · 3 years ago

Dear Scott,

You might be interested in what we have to say over at Communities Dominate Brands

Communities Dominate Brands


For example Why is mobile social networking worth $3.45b?