Brands Create Customers

Michael Mace offers an interesting analytical framework (with diagrams) for making sense of current smartphone and mobile data markets. His analysis (presented as a snapshot) includes Apple’s new iPhone.

Michael’s approach also suggests ways that brand programs might be mapped to market segments, though with brands it’s always better (IMHO) to think of customer vectors rather than fixed locations.

Market mapping the iPhone

Here’s what Michael says about the iPhone:

The iPhone is an attempt to create a phone + media entertainment device. It’ll be interesting to see how the iPhone does in the market — it was an obvious move to combine a communicator with a phone, but it’s not as obvious that the entertainer is a natural match with a phone. The danger to Apple will be if users see iPhone as the worst of both worlds: a phone that lacks a good keypad and an iPod with very small memory.

Beware the “Zone of Death”

On one of Michael’s diagrams, the iPhone seems to be uncomfortably close to what he calls (gulp) “the Zone of Death.” As Michael defines it, this is a market area of low demand where products try to combine different feature sets without solving the key problems of a critical market segment. To use Michael’s analogy, it’s where one finds products that try to be a sportcar, minivan and tractor all in one.

We’ll have a better sense of where the iPhone is headed once it launches, and we can grasp its actual potential as a communications/entertainment platform. It’s that potential that has everyone excited. The iPhone’s true test will come after the early adopter splurge.

Photo: marble2 — Flickr

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Brand Fundamentals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.