Vitaly Demin Senior Strategy Consultant Read about Vitaly

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August 2011

Earlier this year I published an article that talked about how phone manufacturers were losing their brand power by producing too many different phone models. Looks like the situation here is only getting worse.

In the mentioned above article, I compared the iPhone with multiple phone makers that were building Android-based smartphones to show the contrast between how one single brand is stronger than many. It seems like the companies are still not getting it.

In this short article I'am not talking about what works (iPhone). I'm talking about what could have worked.

There was one name that could have become a strong brand and make a huge competitor to iPhone - Droid. But before it could get to that point, phone makers let it roll down the hill and by now pretty much killed it.

To start with, they made a critical mistake at the very beginning - they had two companies (HTC and Motorola) produce phones under that same brand name. How do you explain that to a customer? iPhone is made by Apple but Droid is made by HTC and Motorola. How do you convince a customer that it actually makes sense?

Then they diluted an already shaken brand even more by extending it with submodels like Droid Eris, Droid Global, Droid Incredible, etc.

All the money invested by manufacturers, Google and carriers into advertising and building the brand equity of the Droid name were wasted. It's really up to their marketing executives now whether they want to stick to the same strategy or finally make a change.

One company that has recently understood that is Samsung (my guess it came from consulting by Interbrand). Their Galaxy S smartphone is turning into a powerful brand as they recenetly launched Galaxy S II and sold 5 million handset in 85 days. Someone in the company finally realized that you just can't throw away cash by building tens of models, marketing each of them, confusing the customer, dealing with inventory, etc.

Hopefully, the rest of the pack will get on the right track soon. Otherwise none of them will have a chance of becoming any kind of authority in this highly competitive market.

Read also:

• Three strategies that can give Nokia and Microsoft a chance

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Free on iBooks

This eBook is a brief insight into the core of the executive management of Sony Corporation, the core that is unfortunately filled with one of the most perilous human qualities – arrogance.

For a very long time now Sony has been known as an organization permeated by arrogant attitude toward their suppliers, their distributors and now their customers. This culture is felt everywhere in the world. I remember having meetings with Sony people in Moscow Russia when I consulted the largest electronics retailer in the country. These meetings were very adversarial and not a most pleasant experience. Also, as I worked with electronics retailers in Kuwait, Emirates, India, England, US and other countries, the opinions I received about Sony were the same. Nobody liked them and nobody wanted to do business with them because it was just too painful. Obviously, they could not stop carrying Sony products in their stores but some of them did try to reduce the assortment. Sony rarely partners. They dictate.

This work is an attempt to show how corporate arrogance affected the decisions Sony made along the way, the decisions that led to mistakes, mistakes that got them dethroned from the position of being the best and the most admired consumer electronics company in the world.

I hope this eBook helps other companies see a bigger picture of how decisions that are made inside their organizations affect their brand, their customer loyalty and profitable business growth. Very often top managers do not realize that many of wrong decisions are made not due to the lack of knowledge about the problem but due to the mentioned above human flaw – arrogance.

The 2nd edition includes financial updates from 2010 as well as other recent events associated with the Sony organization.

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