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iPad Branding!
The iPad is stirring some spirited and fun debates. Best ones are around the name! Brings up a great question on branding. What do you think? Deliberate decision to get some buzz or did the product manager go out for coffee when they brand agency showed the word association possibilities around the name iPad??
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3 Answers
All valid points Michael. Although I still can't say the name with a straight face, I am actually starting to see the value in the product, and may consider adding it to my household collection of apple products at some point in the near future. In any case, if the branding decision was indeed made with full knowledge of the inevitable explosion of feminine hygiene jokes, and the product does live up to the expectations, the marketing geniuses at Apple may have authored a new chapter on how to build buzz about new products. Can't wait for the next product name following this school of thought...:-)
Let me put it this way. A week after the announcement, I'm hearing a lot less joking about the name (this WSJ note sums up those jokes nicely http://bit.ly/corVAk ) . Bottom line - if the product is successful, I think the name will be fine and the brand will flow from the quality of the product and the relevant marketing communications. If the product is not successful, it will be ridiculed. I'm sure the name will only intensify the ridicule. Regardless, I have zero doubt the Apple marketers knew the risk they were taking. Phil S, feel free to weigh in here ;-).
Here are a few other thoughts,
- iPod, iPhone, iPad . . . . I like all "P"s is their mobile line
- Pad has a lot of different meanings; that's probably a good thing here
- Apple has the $$$$ and experience to shape a new meaning for the word
Seems like the other major "i" contenders were iTablet or iSlate. I like Kara Swisher's ATD summary of why she thought the name was going to be iPad before they made the announcement (http://bit.ly/6zFYd3)
A time tested definition of a brand - a symbol of trust. The operating word being "trust". A name is not a brand, nor is a symbol on its own. Key questions:
1. What can the product be trusted for? The product has just come out so this isn't a fair question.
2. What is Apple asking the market to trust it for?
3. Does the name reflect this proposition?
I still go by David Ogilvy - advertising doesn't create a brand. It reinforces it. The brand developes if the market has a sustained experience that it can trust the company or the product for. iPad I think is a name riding on an established brand - Apple.
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