I look at technology products every day. I do not want to lay any hate on any particular company. But, I have observed a number of company brands who offer real estate technology that have not differentiated the company name from the product name. For clarity, Apple is a company brand, iPhone is a product, and X is a product version. Kleenex is an example of a company brand name and product name that are the same.
It is pretty difficult to argue with Apple’s brand and product naming conventions. Even in the absence of significant advertising, you can pretty much ask any teen or adult on the planet about Apple, iPhone, or iPhone X and they can verbalize the difference. Their product naming plan helped that word of mouth happen. For example, only the people in the know understand that the “X” is the roman numeral for “10.”
The biggest problem when your brand, your product name, and your product version are the same is that you make it nearly impossible for customers to identify change. I clearly know the difference between Apple and Samsung. Clearly, I know the difference between a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. And clearly there is a difference between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. I would have no clue if Kleenex did something different.
Is your company name, product name, and product version the same?
CoreLogic relaunched the Matrix Client Portal, they renamed it the Matrix 2.0 portal. When they launch the version of Matrix with integrated Realist, they are calling it Matrix 360. I am not too worried about product name versions unless you are doing something big. When Cloud CMA launched a remodeled version of their software. They did not add a version, like Cloud CMA 2.0. Neither did Apple when they launched the new version of the MacBook Pro. I think it is an either-or strategy.
The bigger issue is when the Company Name and the Product Name are the same. It makes it harder to market a new version. All New Kleenex? Kleenex Classic?
Something to think about. Marketers and sales people need tools to launch new products. It makes prospects rethink and reassess the product. It allows you to draw a line in the sand and break a mold.
One wrinkle to this I’d like to add, and this is more towards 3rd Party Software vendors. Some apps that use the company name tend to have an easier time with MLS providers permissioning. Sometimes I wished I named my first product something like “Cloud Real Estate Master”. Why? Well I wouldn’t necessarily have to go back to the MLS provider each time I added a new “feature” to the product. With a new “product” you need to go back to the MLS Provider each time you want to launch it. Even if you a just using the same data. So with Cloud Real Estate Master” it first would do reports, then listing alerts, then search. MLS Providers doesn’t bat an eyelash. But Cloud CMA, then Cloud Streams, and Cloud MLX? That’s 3 different permissioning sessions which can take forever and doesn’t give me parity in markets so the signup process is waaaaay more complicated.
Not only more complicated – but sometimes vendors my need to pay extra for each product.