Cauvin

Laura Ries makes two primary points in her recent blog entry : If your product is innovative or the established brand leader, it should own not just a word or idea in the mind of the customer, but should also "own" the category itself. I.e., customers and prospects should equate or strongly associate the category with the product. If your product owns a dying category and you introduce a new product in new or healthy category, don't put the new product under the same brand umbrella. Instead, create an entirely new brand . Some choice quotes: [L]eaders many times become the generic for that category. The brand becomes a short-hand device for talking about and asking for a particular category. Kodak is not in trouble because people don't love the Kodak brand anymore. Kodak is in trouble because people don't use conventional film cameras anymore. Moving Kodak to the digital category makes no sense at all. When your brand owns a category in the mind and your catego...

In August of 2005, I pondered , "Why Pay for a Logo?" Logos can be important, but it doesn't require deep thought to create them. It's just a matter of following certain simple (albeit counterintuitive) guidelines . Now Seth Godin recommends : [T]ake the time and money and effort you'd put into an expensive logo and put them into creating a product and experience and story that people remember instead. But when you do choose a logo, keep in mind that your impulse to create one with "meaning" is probably a bad idea .