Free, Perfect and Now: part 2

The story so far (scroll down for the blog entry part 1): There is a strong hypothesis that, in the near future, all functionality will become free, perfect and instantaneous (now). The question is: what will you charge for? How will you build a brand?

One possible solution lies in creating cool customer experiences. This requires constant innovation to stay one cool experience ahead of your competition.

The second thing that the customer may be willing to pay for is trust. This goes beyond the reliability of the product into the space of “do I trust this company?”

A strong trend that supports this is the rise of the “company brand”, as opposed to the “product brand”. The product brand was historically built around “what can you (the product) do for me (the consumer) and was driven by advertising. The company brand will be built around “what do you (the company) stand for and how do you behave” and will be driven by how the company walks its talk.

Let me give 3 examples.

Till 1995-6, Microsoft was seen as the underdog in the technology world. It was seen as a bunch of smart kids who had outwitted giants like IBM; iconoclasts who made tons of money but ate hamburgers; and the people most likely to chart out the future course of technology. However, after the browser war, the same Microsoft was seen as a bully. Still a bunch of smart people, but who were willing to cross the line and be ruthless to protect their turf. The change in perception had nothing to do with the quality of code coming out of Redmond; it had everything to do with their behavior. And it has been Microsoft’s “behavior”, (that of “not innovating”), that has been the subject of most articles/opinions written about it (next comes Gates’ charity; which is also a “behavior” trait).

If you look at GE, and analyze the articles written about it, very few have to do with the plastics they make or the quality of their aircraft engines or x-ray machines. However, the lack of transparency around Jack Welch’s retirement package makes news and impacts perception. Much is also written about GE’s management aggressive, performance driven management culture, which drives company behavior.

And then, there is Google. When it agreed to abide by the “requests” of the Chinese authority, it kicked up a storm, because Google wasn’t behaving as people expected it to under pressure. “Don’t be evil”, the famous Google vision line is all about guiding its behavior; not its products.

These three companies come from different eras, but are amongst the strongest brands in the world today. Each of them is a magnificent company in its own rights and has deserved the pedestal each is on. Yet, as the examples show, organizations will do well to focus on their behavior and build their company brand to earn the trust of their customers.