Re: Wanted: new project slogan

IMHO

Even though I seem to have been an accidental catalyst for this discussion,
I think it is time to offer some general comments about branding. I'll try
to keep it short.

Branding 101:

'Corporate Identity' (the new hip term is 'Branding' but in my view it means
basically the same thing) is what organisations DO in an attempt to
establish HOW they want to be viewed by their target market, the wider
community, their competitors, legislators, etc. ­ their 'Corporate Image'.

There are several elements that can influence your Corporate Image: name,
logo, colours, typography, quality of marketing (brochures, website,
advertising, merchandising, etc.) and product, dress, bearing and individual
behaviour of people in this and other forums.

The corporate identity programme aims to systematize these elements. But it
all begins with understanding your marketing objectives and how your
branding will support those objectives.

So firstly, we should codify our marketing objectives. Then, and only then,
should we be talking about branding.

Some would say that the marketing objectives are understood and agreed to. I
seriously question that. And I think it is reflected in the discussions on
this forum. It is inevitable that such a large and diverse group will have
different views. But there should always be a common direction. I don¹t see
that, beyond the fact that we all love PostgreSQL (the product, not the
name!); we would like it to be recognised as one of the world¹s best RDBMS
applications ­ commercial and open source; we would like it to be accessible
worldwide (with all the cultural, language and other issues that entails);
and we would like it to be perceived as being accessible for everyone
(advanced but easy to use.

What did I overlook?

I would never support ANY change to the Corporate Identity until I
understood EXACTLY what the marketing objectives are. Right now, I think the
tail is wagging the dog. Isn¹t this how we ended up with a suspect name, a
funny-looking icon that denotes big and slow to me and a wordy slogan that
throws out the wrong message to some of our target market.

Regards

Rob Napier