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September 23, 2006
iTunes tries to sing a different tune
Naming is one of the most underemphasized aspects of brand design.
The most common mistake - names that are too abstract or non-descriptive - often done in the name of sounding cool or creative. One of the best practices - naming a product/service so that it associates itself with the product category without explanation - so I kind of get it after just hearing the name.
One of the better examples in recent memory of good product naming - iTunes.
This has it's own catch-22. What about something wonderfully named like iTunes when you want to expand the offering to video-based content when the name suggests a music-based offering.
Well, it looks like the first thing Apple did is quit calling it the iTunes Music Store in favour of shortening it to iTunes Store. (At least, that's how it appear in my lamer Canadian version where I can't actually purchase movies).
I'm really interested in seeing how this works out. Success in one category doesn't alway ensure success in a seemingly related market. And the competitors are started to stack up in this category with several other recent high-profile video download launches - Amazon among them.
I'm watching this case study with interest. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple evolves the naming of iTunes gradually to position the brand for market leadership success in the movie and video content category. Although currently used to name their simple video editing software - the name iMovie is kicking around the stable.
They face some challenges though. The name is one. The other is that they are up against a more sophisticated digital right management technology in Microsoft's Windows Media DRM. Fancier technology affords control is this is the kind of thing that content owners like Hollywood studios get seduced by. Although for all the WM DRM technology innovation, Microsoft and partners have come nowhere near replicating iTunes success.
And I don't care how wonderful the Zune is - Microsoft is at a huge disadvantage is trying to make up ground in this race. This isn't like switching where you buy your cup of coffee. Consider the collective consumer investment in iPod players, the money spent on proprietary iTunes songs and getting used to the best user experience around - I'm not going to be switching to anything else anytime soon and I don't think I'm alone in that view.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:41 PM
September 11, 2006
Interactive in the Agency - Rekindling An Old Flame
Saw an interesting post today on the Hill & Knowlton blog about Interactive getting rolling again around the ad agency / PR world.
http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/lisawalker/archive/2006/09/08/4515.aspx
Good stuff. My stock is up then.
In the daily Marketing Mag email, I see there's a posting for a "Web 2.0 Evangelist" at Kamelio. (It must all the rage again, techy terms that confound clients are starting to flourish ... old habits die hard I guess.)
Myself, I'm partial to well-executed interactive coming out of the agency where a lot of the creative marketing thinking gets done. But that's easier said than done. Interactive hasn't paid many bills for agencies and more often than not it's been the other way around so it's kind of fallen off the radar in favour of focussing on other avante-garde service offerings. Better off figuring out how to ward off strategy-slinging management consultants vying for the ear of brand-conscious VP of Marketing.
Ah... interactive...
The rage came, the agencies bolted on the services thinking the world would change overnight, there was more integration theory than practice, superlatives abounded and everyone lost money. Integrated advertising with strong digital components are a tall order and it's the reason that really smart, well-rounded & strategic interactive shops are going to be able to take work away from agencies for the foreseeable future.
I need to post on this again, but I think the right structure is a very important ingredient in getting good integrated marketing out the door. Don't treat interactive as a separate thing. Get it inside the agency.
In the meantime, as the web comes back into vogue again (and it is and will continue to) it'll be interesting to see if we've learned anything from the last time around.
I did...
Posted by Derek Leverington at 11:25 AM