White Paper - Strategy to brand commoditized digital technology
W H I T E P A P E R
Senior management
“Principles of Marketing” course
at Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
by Shombit Sengupta
The skeleton of Marilyn Monroe will never aspire you. Digital language is
the same as the skeleton
Like so many others, she was a black haired woman named Norma Jeane. She was a worker
in a factory of aviation blades. A man once took her picture, sent it to Yank magazine where it was published.
Black hair Norma Jeane, 16 years
Norma Jeane, Yank magazine publication with black hair
Encouraged by that she applied to
the Blue Model agency, but they wanted golden haired girls. She promptly bleached her hair and went on to become a famous model; then changed her name to become a famous film star. Just look at this perspective: when black hair became blonde, it made all the difference.
So Marilyn’s identity is intertwined
with blonde hair.
Digital language
In analogy, digital language can be considered as Norma Jeane.
The real challenge is how to make digital language into the Marilyn Monroe that the world adores.
An artist’s palette can give shape, personality and distinction to digital language on the condition that the artist has business sense
to understand the consumer’s psyche. The more digital the world becomes, only artistic value can change it to a sensitive form to distinguish it as a brand.
What is Alfred Nobel better known by? The Nobel prize or dynamite?
People know of Mr Nobel for the prizes
he established for honouring noble inventions.They do not consider him
as just a dynamite buster.
How is Newton popularly depicted?
With an apple falling on his head!
Newton’s theory of gravitation can be considered digital language that
everybody does not understand.
Beyond this esoteric form, the masterpiece strategic branding of gravity is an apple falling on the head. This will be remembered for time immemorial.
Digital language is making the
world too dangerously homogeneous.
Only a big size digital technology
company can rescue this situation
by establishing that it’s thinking not
of technology, but of ideas, that technology is a mere slave.
The distinctiveness of a product’s tech language is that it breaks through subtlety, aesthetics
and disruption like Norma Jeane to Marilyn Monroe. That changes the product perception, increases its volume and net worth. The similarity between one digital language from another
is always so small that only disruption can make the difference in every industry.
Here are a few examples:
Windows of Microsoft does not manifest technology even though it is tech monopoly.
It gives you the path to look and go beyond, wherever you want to.
Danone Activia Beauty Comes from Within, while being a generic product that uses
bifidus actif developed by Pasteur Institute, Activia does not look like yoghurt.
The ingenuity of Apple Corporation is that in
a totally commoditization industry, Apple has created distinction with iMac, iPod and iPhone.
Digital language is a contaminating disease like
plague or leprosy that can only contaminate, and
does not distinguish. Only strong ideas bring shape
to digital language.
