I was checking out an article by Brian Morrissey in Adweek titled These Brands Build Community that focuses on how such companies as Zappos, Craigslist and Yelp build their brands by building community. I was actually trying to find out more about Yelp.com but I got distracted by a couple of bizarre quotes that seemed either disingenuous or downright inaccurate.
From Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster:
"All we do is try to respond to what users are asking for...That's how we set our priorities. Users aren't asking us to run ads, so it doesn't come onto our radar."
Gee, Jim, given that the last time I checked, Craigslist makes money by charging advertisers in a few big cities for jobs and certain real estate related listings, you mean the users asked you to do that?
No, of course they didn't.
From Umair "I drank all the Web 2.0+ Kool-Aid" Haque:
"The entire economic rationale for brands is gone...Interaction is too easy now for brands to have power."
Say what?
Having read quite a bit of Haque's online writing and having tried to ask him questions on his blog, I know that you gots to pay to get a meaningful explanation including Haque's Kool-Aid recipe. So the concept of brands losing their "economic rationale", as absurd as it may sound, may have a backstory that makes sense.
You know, like in the Bizarro universe where Haque has been relentlessly building his own brand.
Seriously, it's a different world for brands but in a time of attention deficit and heightened noise, a strong brand is more valuable than ever. What has changed for branding is the nature of what constitutes a strong brand and the methods for building such a brand.
Would you say that Google's brand has no "economic rationale"?
I wouldn't but I'm more of a coffee drinker myself.
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