Perhaps MBA students should take this as one of their case studies, or perhaps some talents in producing copycats should stop what they are doing and think about it: The Power of Branding.
Undoubtedly, it is commonly believed that no people would consider the second best. When you are going to buy a new product but find that there is a flaw, I am sure you will probably not go for it. Would marking down the price help you change your mind? I am afraid not, and please don’t talk to me about “workarounds”. In the modern competitive world with full of alternatives, “flaw” just simply means “failure”.
However, I am indeed stunned that the eyeballs and sales are still on iPhone 4, even it is widely announced that there is a “flaw”: reception problem when you squeeze the antenna areas.
Many reports, like this, have already stated that iPhone has lost its edge to rivals like HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S, but why many people just can’t wait going for the product with “flaw”, just because it has the free case solution (i.e. “workaround”)?
If I have to put an explanation, just to my common sense, I could say that’s all about branding Apple had been building for decades. iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBooks, etc. any brands from Apple are always successfully symbolized as “Fashioned”, “Simplified” or “Stylish”, although some are less successful.
But I still couldn’t imagine how powerful branding can be: to make so many people buy a phone that sometimes doesn’t function as a phone.
Soon after the Apple iPad was launched in the United States in April 2010, another rival is found on the market called WePad, in less than a month.
The comparison of WePad to iPad can be summarized in terms of bigger screen (11.6”), presence of webcam, using Android as the operating system and around 200g heavier. But what really impresses me is that we can run Adobe Flash application over the platform.
Why? It is because GearApp is running on Flash. The latest Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology offers GearApp users interactive and appealing user interface, but at the same time saves us a lot of hassles in compatibility issues in running our apps in different browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and more…) as long as the latest version of flash player is installed. More >
A seminar called “User-Centered Design Principles: Users and Usability” was held by the Hong Kong Design Centre on 25 August 2009. Dr. Jon Dodd, the speaker of the seminar, gave a very inspiring introduction on what User-Centered Design (UCD) is and how important it is in all development projects of web-based solutions.
With over 13 years practical experience gained helping organizations create effective web solutions, Dr. Dodd presented a systematic methodology to guide project stakeholders working through a low-risk web-based development. If my memory is good, one of his projects about development of a website for an airline company would require more than 50% of the whole development schedule (e.g. about 8 weeks) in usability study. During the usability study, a focus group of a number of people was set up to deal with the company and their customers then comment how to enhance their existing website to increase the reservation rate of air tickets. More >
