Alphabet, Google’s self-created holding company on Friday, has decided not to adopt the “Don’t Be Evil” clause in its code of conduct. It’s settling instead on the less distinctive and vague instruction for employees to “do the right thing” effectively choosing not to go down this path as a way of differentiating itself.
Years ago, I worked for Hills Bros coffee. We were the #3 brand having a tough time competing against the market leaders (Folgers and Maxwell House), struggling in many markets to keep our product in distribution.
The brand architecture spectrum has been well documented and has proven to be a powerful way to describe and map the brand architecture universe. Do a Google image search of brand architecture spectrum and you will find many variations on a theme (like this one). These renditions show the progression of brand architecture options from branded house (one single brand) to house of brands (many brands under one roof).
Which strategy works the best—a narrow, specialized positioning where a product focuses on one feature or an all-in-one solution where products offer a range of features? Turns out that bundling more features into a product does not automatically increase perceived value and often less is, in fact, more.
It takes some combination of time, effort, creativity and money for brands to successfully differentiate themselves from the competition — something brilliant in terms of functionality, design or marketing for a brand to stand out from the crowd.
