I petition to rename "feature" as "complication" on software teams.
Complication parity across all platforms
The Brand Age
311–320 of 403 posts
Re: The Brand Age
#312> Branding is centrifugal; design is centripetal So they’re the same thing but from two frames of reference? I’m not sure this metaphor holds.
Yeah it really felt hammered in as a way for the author to try to look literate and punchy, but it does not work.
Re: The Brand Age
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
They may be beautiful, but the fact remains if you could produce and sell Patek Philippe Nautilus for $200 no one would be interested in it. The same is not true for most other beautiful objects
So you’re saying that $200 watches don’t sell? But here - https://spechtandsohne.com/product-category/icon-quartz/ And they are pretty popular with folks who like watches.
They’re only popular because they appeal to the real luxury product, like counterfeit Rolexes.
Re: The Brand Age
#314What was the interesting problem that Swiss watchmakers could have focused on, instead of pursuing brand?
Re: The Brand Age
#315> Of course they don't call them golden ages as they're happening. "Golden age" is a term people use later, after they're over. That doesn't mean that golden ages aren't real, but rather that their participants take them for granted at the time. They don't know how good they have it. But while it's usually a mistake to take one's good fortune for granted, it's not in this case. What a golden age feels like, at the ti…
i love the analogy. the golden age of the web was before javascript, when only people who knew how to code html were able to make websites. however things come in cycles, so who knows maybe the next will come by
> only people who knew how to code html were able to make websites
And the people who were able to click Save as HTML in Word creating a complete jumble that only worked in IE
Re: The Brand Age
#316Good points, but implicitly equating good design with functional design irks me. You can define your terms as you wish, but at least be upfront about it.
> Branding is centrifugal; design is centripetal.
Functional design is centripetal. "Good" design is one which achieves the designer's goals, which are often much more complicated than that.
Re: The Brand Age
#317I've been reading Rory Sutherland's book Alchemy and it's full of fascinating insights about marketing/branding etc Case in point: - company was testing out their mail based fundraising drive - they randomly tested cheap vs expensive envelopes, regular envelopers vs side opening envelopes etc for how people could send back a check - they found that expensive envelopes beat cheap and side envelopes beat top loading Th…
Similarly, when I was a teenager I knew a guy who built guitars by hand. He is a master craftsman who makes beautiful instruments, but he told me one time that he had customers sometimes lose interest because his guitars were cheaper than similar competitors (5k vs 10k as I recall). He wound up raising his prices, and got more sales as a result, even though the guitars hadn't changed at all. It was a really interesti…
Couple of other interesting pricing stories:
1. Cereal
Apparently cereal makers were losing money b/c they priced their product at a much lower price point than, at the time, the regular breakfast of bacon and eggs.
They hired a consultant who pointed out they could raise their prices as long as it was lower than bacon and eggs, make more money and still be cheaper.
2. Raising prices
There is a story in one of the pricing/economics books about a store keeper who told her assistant to halve the price of jewelry that wasn't selling. The assistant misheard and doubled the price. The jewelry immediately sold.
3. The shelf that always sells
In the book about Shopsin's in NYC, the author and owner mentions that certain shelves in a store will sell out of whatever is on that shelf. Regardless of price, product, time of year etc.
Apparently, putting things right by the front door in supermarkets is the opposite: very few people buy anything that is there. I noticed that one of the Real Housewives of NJ had her food product there and thought to myself: someone is giving you bad advice and/or humoring you by putting your product there.
Re: The Brand Age
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nike couldn't be the global brand it was today if it directly managed all its factories. This is a weird statement to me. Replace "Nike" with "Intel". Intel manages all of its factories and is a global brand. (Yes, I know they recently outsourced some chip manuf to TSMC, but Intel was surely a global brand in the 1990s.) I don't get it. What am I missing?
Intel is definitely the exception. For most companies, like Nike or Apple to take two, they in-house design work, but then contract out manufacturing to external companies, who often themselves subcontract out work further. I'm speculating now, but it seems really likely if that type of distributed supply chain didn't exist, we'd see a closer coupling of design and manufacturing (at an extreme end factories designing…
I'm not sure I agree with your analysis.
It's true that branding gains importance as a differentiator when the product moves towards being a commodity or if its innovation has reached its peak . But I disagree that it's always the driving factor for how a company is structured.
There are some industries where the franchise model is most dominant (eg fast food chains) and some others where tight control over the value chain is the norm (eg apple). And funnily enough, one of the distinctive differentiators those luxury swiss watchmakers have, is: "We make every part ourselves. Everything is manufactured in Switzerland.". Then you have the OG multinational companies like P&G or Unilever, where branding definitely plays an important role but a lot of their brands are regional so it's yet another structure.
I really think it's mainly the specific industry and geopolitics that shape supply chains and not the branding.
> I'm speculating now, but it seems really likely if that type of distributed supply chain didn't exist, we'd see a closer coupling of design and manufacturing (at an extreme end factories designing and producing their own product).
It's an interesting question. I think it's safe to say that the main driver to outsource manufacturing was cost. But nowadays companies also benefit from things like reduced accountability. Even if we assume every part of the supply chain could be done within the US, wouldn't companies like Apple still eventually outsource the ugly parts of the supply chain to some third party within the US? Simply for the appearances.
Re: The Brand Age
#319> Obsolete technologies don't usually get adopted as ways to display wealth. Why did it happen with mechanical watches? For many men, the wristwatch is the only socially acceptable jewelry they can wear. Jewelry is usually used to signify some combination of status and taste, so it makes a lot of sense to spend more on watches with nerdy features like automatic windup, spring drive, etc. Women have other ways of disp…
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Re: The Brand Age
#320Innovation brings a golden age, then innovation flattens, competition arises and branding becomes more important Flying was having its golden age around the times of Concorde and 747, coffee bars were great when Starbucks reinvented the 3rd place and social media was cool when it just came out It very much relates to that Steve Jobs clip about what happens when the marketing people take over the company
Many countries have avoided the complete brand/chain-ification of the US market.
Cafes and coffee places are still great, Starbucks did for them what McDonalds did for food. They're a known standard of quality. It might be low, but it's known. Starbucks didn't invent the 3rd place, or re-invent it.
As jobs moved from manufacturing to services, more people were able to work in a way that the "3rd place" offers. The ultimate extension of that is WFH.
The actual planes are much better today than in the "golden age ... of Concorde and 747", what ruined it was the security theater as a result of 9/11, and the race to the bottom of the service offerings.
Business classes (especially international and Asian airlines) is much much better, economy has more services (individual entertainment, USB, power etc), better seats, but much worse seat pitches, and nickel-and-diming every item possible (ticket transfers/changes, luggage, seat selection, meals, etc).
So not so much "Brand Age" for air travel, it's more a stratification.