Just earlier someone linked the news from Verge that MS was forced to rename SkyDrive due to trademark problems with the British Sky media brand. This could only be better if they were also sued by Google over the “drive” word (cf Google Drive).
It’s outright ridiculous how hard Microsoft keeps failing at branding its products. Even Google does a better job, and even they appear as an utter failure when compared to Apple. At least the green Android robot android is a recognizable brand logo and I think the way they keep using the full word “Google” (instead of just gSomething for example) in their product naming is also a conscious (and viable) decision.
Thinking of Microsoft? What comes to mind? The series of failures like Internet Explorer 6 and Windows Vista. The way they’ve been ridiculed for decades about how stupidly “bad” their products were. In a world where Apple has such a solid brand with an established product design, the iSomething naming pattern and a logo that’s recognized even by toddlers at this point, I have trouble understanding what the hell is going on in the Microsoft PR people’s minds.
SkyDrive isn’t their first failure either. Just a few years ago they had to drop the Metro phrase from Windows 8’s marketing – that time it was the German retail chain of the same name that raised their eyebrows at MS’s choice of words. I can’t understand that after getting such a slap in the face (because I’m pretty sure that having to drop the core phrase of a product’s marketing isn’t exactly a pleasant experience for a marketing pro), how can they make the very same mistake again and use a brand name that’s already someone else’s.
And it’s not even something like a tiny corner kiosk chain in a dusty developing country – Sky’s one of the biggest channel groups on British TV. Even I know about it, and I haven’t been to Britain for more than three weeks total.
Microsoft even gave up on their red-green-yellow-blue flying window logo – it’s not flying and not even multi-colored in its recent appearances. Their product naming is all over the place too: Windows, Xbox, Surface, Bing – there’s barely a common letter among these, let alone a common image. Now they come up with “One Drive” that at least rhymes with Xbox One (let’s not delve into what a notorious product that is), but still lacks any character.
The MS marketing division sure doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing, so I thought I’d give them a hint: you’re failing. Hard.
