With two of the world’s biggest brands about to lock horns it’s interesting to wonder whether there are any lessons the rest of us can learn from this epic struggle for mobile phone supremacy.
Although it might not seem so at first, the battle that Google has waged against Apple is precisely the same struggle small businesses and entrepreneurs across the UK face every day when they attempt to launch something new – whether that new entity is a shop, toaster, screwdriver, or indeed a phone.
Although Google is a huge brand in its own right, the fact is that when it comes to the mobile phone market they are very much David to Apple’s Goliath. As a branding expert, for me one of the most interesting questions is not whether the Nexus One is a superior product to the iPhone, but whether Google can cause a shift in the market in the face of such a strong brand?
This is precisely the type of question that keeps marketing directors up at night – trying to calculate how to cause a paradigm shift when there is no great ‘need’
Paradigm shift
This is precisely the type of question that keeps marketing directors up at night – trying to calculate how to cause a paradigm shift when there is no great ‘need’. Whether you run a small business trying to launch a new product or are the MD of a major corporation the ‘one hard question’ is often “how can we compete with the dominant brand in the market?”
The truth is there is no simple, one-size-fits-all answer to this question. If there was there would be no need for branding experts and we would all be millionaires.
When Google decided to launch the Nexus One they made a conscious decision to take on one of the world’s best-loved brands in their own backyard. Taking on the might of Apple was a pretty brave move when you consider some of the other big brands, from Nokia to Sony, which have tried and failed to loosen Apple’s grip on the mobile market.
The iPhone has been one of the great success stories of the 21st century. From the moment it was released the world seemed to change handsets overnight. Thousands queued, from Tokyo to New York, just to be able to pre-order the high tech gadget, which looked more like a mini TV than a phone.
Challenging this sort of market dominance was never going to be easy – although it’s worth remembering it isn’t an unprecedented situation. One only needs to look at Sony’s launch of the Playstation or Virgin’s move into the fitness industry for examples of great success stories.
Virgin’s success
In fact when it comes to moving into new markets and turning them around Virgin are the masters that everyone should look too.
At 1HQ we believe that one of the reasons Virgin have been so successful in opening new markets is their ‘generosity of spirit’ – and this is something that we can all learn from. Branson not only understands the importance of customer service, but understands the importance of added value and giving customers a little extra.
Take Virgin Airways as an example. Originally a challenger to the assertive BA, Virgin soon became the transatlantic airline of choice thanks to their fantastic in-flight service.
They were far more than a ‘taxi service’ and gave passengers added bonuses such as serving ice-creams before movies begin, a bar to sit and chat with your mates at, bacon butties that tasted as good as you could hope for on a flight are as good as it can be and a lounge superior to those at most hotels.
This was all part of the service, not an extra, and as such demonstrating a generosity of spirit. BA may have been the leader, but generous it has never been and continues to squeeze those loyalists which have stuck with it, if only for the air miles and upgrades.
This is the magic that generous brands have, and as such we like them, we absorb them, they become a part of our lifestyle and most importantly, we trust them and become advocates for them.
I suspect readers may be thinking “how does this relate to me?” Or “that is all well and good for Google, but I can’t afford to give away things for free.”
In the end generosity of spirit can mean lots of different things to different businesses. The key thing is for all of us to think long and hard about what we can do to win customers over.
In other words, how can we give a little extra without going bankrupt? It is this sort of thinking that endears brands to customers and breeds loyalty.
If customers feel you are only giving them the bare minimum service they will have no problem walking away or moving over to a rival.
What Google – and indeed all brands – need to think about is “how can we be generous”. That is the question I would put to all businesses in 2010.
