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10/21/2004: "Stopping Superman"

If Vivato had any chance of stopping what I've done here, they would have employed the only known working tactic against a "disgrunted employee" who knows too much and isn't afraid to shout. They would have responded by getting personal, on-line. They would have their employees blog.

Want to motivate your boss to get blogs? Have him do some homework on the Kryptonite story and look at the brand equity that has gone away due to their response (or lack thereof).

Read the whole thing.

Of course, Vivato's management still believes that branding is king, and that a press release that implies that the Dave Matthews Band uses its famous (but barely functional) basestations at every concert venue, (the truth is that they use only the Bridge/Router (pollen8) platform), is the path to increasing market share.

Then again, having your brand equity shot to hell doesn't mean much when Branding is dead:


Blogging is all about ECO-logy. Branding is all about EGO-logy. The two are not compatible. Which is why brand-wimpy Microsoft has hundreds of bloggers [a well-known fact], and why you can get fired for blogging at uber-brand Apple [so I've been told].
Apple like the conversation they're currently having. They don't want it to change, internally or externally. They want to control the means of conversation.
I've seen branding work. I've seen blogging work. My conclusion?
Branding is dead.
Holy Shit.
Branding. Is. Dead.
We just thought just marketing and advertising were dead. Nope. Branding kicked the bucket, too.
Dead, dead, and dead.
Holy shit.


Vivato currently bans its employees from blogging. They modified the Employment Agreement to make it so. You can expect little else while the company remains managed by Neandertals.



Note to Chris DeM and crew: love the blurry people on the SH outdoor datasheet, but isn't the photo of the anorexic model on page 4 a bit too edgy?