New medium, new leaders

The way to exploit a new mass medium like the Internet is by launching a new brand with a new name. Not by dragging an old brand into the new medium. Yet time and again companies make this classic error.

Why can’t the kings of yesterday’s technology reign supreme in a new kingdom?

Because, a new brand has greater authenticity and the freedom to adapt itself better to suit the new medium.

If you study the history this is exactly what has happened over and over again.

Newspaper brands never made it big on radio. Radio brands never made it big on broadcast television. Broadcast TV brands never made it big on cable. Cable brands never made it big with magazines. And newspaper, magazine, radio, and television brands never made it big on the Internet.

Brands that have made it big on the Internet are brands focused on and built exclusively for the medium: Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, Google, You Tube, My Space and Monster.

Look at celebrity gossip, many people’s favorite secret pastime and one I can’t get through a Stairmaster cardio session without.

Over the years celebrity gossip has seen a different brand leader for each new medium.

Newspapers: The Enquirer
Television: Entertainment Tonight
Magazines: US Weekly
Cable: E!
Internet: TMZ

For almost every category it’s the same story. A new mass medium brings new leaders. Rarely does the old guard survive the new world order. And if they do survive, it is usually only short lived. Sooner or later a focused competitor comes along and knocks them off their throne.

That is exactly what TMZ has done in the celebrity gossip category. In just a little over a year TMZ.com has become the leader in the category beating out old-guard heavy hitters like People.com, E! Online and Entertainment Weekly’s portal. With a short, unique name and Harvey Levin, a PR savy managing editor and spokesperson, TMZ has arrived and become king of celebrity gossip on the Internet.

So if you have a successful television, newspaper or magazine brand and are thinking of transferring it to the Internet, think again. Go ahead and build an Internet site, but give your site a new name and a new brand identity.

And if you are a start-up looking to build an Internet brand and are fearful of competing with offline brands with more resources than you can imagine, fear not. Have faith that small focused brands can become the David that slays the Goliaths. Look at TMZ for proof.

Comments

[KMF Kamal]

I agree that traditional brands do not have the association with a new media space like the internet - having said that, what about all the brand equity that lies with these brands in the minds of consumers?

I suppose big corporates are reluctant to launch new brands when all their marketing dollars are being spent increasing the equity in their core brands.

[Laura Ries]

Sorry Geoff, I don't know where you got your info, but according to the numbers I have read, Amazon is still winning the online book business.

Barnes & Noble had sales last year of $5.3 billion and net profits of $150 million, but my guess is that they lost money on their Internet operation.

Amazon.com had sales last year of $10.7 billion, twice the sales of Barnes & Noble. Net profits were $190 million.

Barnes & Noble hasn’t surpassed Amazon in anything.

Both companies have made major marketing mistakes.

Barnes & Noble
by not using a different name for their website.

Amazon for getting into everything besides books.

[Geoff Livingston]

This is true most of the time, but not universally so. I think the best example of successful brick & mortar gone online is Barnes & Noble, which has really gone on to surpass Amazon. A serious argument could be made in this instance for Amazon causing major brand identity confusion with its many stores, thus creating an opportunity for bn.com.

GL

[mike]

It's even a better story than that - tmz.com is an AOL company, which sources alot of their traffic. Independent blogger Perezhilton.com is the really impressive site in this space. If you're interested, I wrote an piece on this subject and his site a few days ago: http://www.marksonland.com/2007/03/ode_to_perez_hilton.html

[Cynthia Pinsonnault]

Maybe it's from reading your blog or maybe it's just happening more these days, but I seem to see bad branding everywhere I look. And don't get me started on line extensions -- have you see "Miller Chill" - positioned against Cerveza?

Love your blog ... please don't stop!

Cindy P