An interesting article I was reading the other day on Branding Strategy Insider may not be directly relevant to us in our fairly niche industrial and scientific markets, but I think there might be something we can learn from the issues being discussed. The Danger of You Centered Branding warns of the dangers of no longer standing for something, and instead telling your market “we can be whatever you want us to be”. It’s a fair warning. I suspect most customers don’t care enough about a brand to want it to be anything.
Instead, successful companies, whether mass-market or not, have a clear idea of what their products do, and the benefits they bring to their customers (and, if you remember an earlier discussion here, the impact they can have on their customers’ businesses). Expecting your customers to work out what your products might do for them isn’t a terrible idea – it’s not an idea at all. It’s just an abdication of responsibility.