Discussion: Does Brand Consistency Matter When Launching Your App?
Posted August 6th, 2009 / By Chad Engle in App Designers, App Developers, Apps, Featured, Launch Ideas, Web
In this video we are going to talk about Brand Consistency Online. Branding is key to keeping your app consistent and so is communication. We are looking at a brand called Unblab that launched a splash site, then an updated in-depth site explaining their app. After that Unblab disappeared from twitter and stopped making updates for a period of months. Now they are back with a new site and another app to boot. However, the branding did not stay the same and is not as clean and crisp as it was before. Following the video in the post there will be questions for you to answer and have a discussion about if this hurt or helped the brand.
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Questions:
Did the disappearance hurt them networking with their key customers since they didn’t tell anyone where they went?
Will the rebranding after such a long time hurt the brand?
Is this a good example or bad of how to work on an app?
How should Brands handle this situation?
Links:
Chad Engle is the Editor of Fuel Your Apps. He is a fulltime designer, who lives, breathes, listens , eats, tweets , connects & consumes all that is creative & app related. He is a caffeine addict and likes long walks on the beach. Follow him on twitter at@chadengle and @fuelyourapps
Hey Chad. We’ve spent the summer working with LaunchBox Digital, a great startup incubator out of Washington DC. Recently, we made a decision to spin out our importance ranking technology from the Unblab Webmail Client into a couple other products that require the user to change less of their emailing habits. So, we’ve launched a temporary website (the one that is up now at http://unblab.com) to focus on the product that is actually released (GTriage).
Over the next few weeks you will see a reconciliation of the old Unblab brand with the new direction we’ve taken, you will see a couple more updates on the Unblab Webmail Client and we will release a lot more information about what we’ve been up to over the last few months.
Keep an eye out!
Anthony Deloso,
CEO, Unblaboratory, Inc.
Thanks for the response Anthony! I am interested in seeing where Unblab goes. I am very excited for the product (as I was before) and was deflated when you all disappeared. Basically the conversation was talking about how when launching an app should you approach issues like going back into development. Again thank you for the response and the update!
Never launched an app, but I can say that consistency is usually a good idea when trying to start any launch. Otherwise you could leave a bad taste in people’s mouths right off the bat. Not to mention, how in this particular case, some kind of communication would have been beneficial and probably would have eased the blowback.
From the beginning of unblab’s presence online, I followed them and tweeted to them & about them for a couple months. I thought what they were doing was really interesting, not to mention their product seemed amazing and a ‘must have’. Then they went silent for a long time and I forgot about them. The other day they popped back up on a post about startups and I was disappointed. I totally understand that once you get funding you’re not really in control anymore, which is probably why their biz model seemed to have changed along with their product offering. Can’t wait to see what their desktop version looks like (from the first screenshots back in the day). Anyway I think brand consistency is VERY important and I hope they can surpass these changes.
Ahhhh yes. The app dev branding conundrum.
1. App dev firm comes up with idea
2. App dev firm hurries to build + launch before someone else does
3. App builds momentum and users
4. Users provide beta feedback + funds
5. App dev firm makes product better (or worse) and officially brands product
I have to admit, it’s really hard with app development. I’m going through this now with my 9-5. You’ve got to rush to get v1.0 out the door before the other guys. While it’s out there you get feedback and you make the product better (or you bloat it with features until it sinks) then v2.0 heads out the door with a shiny coat of paint.
Looks like UnLab branded themselves as the product at the beginning. Now they want to expand to other apps so they pull back with a ‘company’ site and separate offerings into product sites. Good move. Lets them maintain their master brand while allowing them to focus messaging and creative on product target markets.
Here’s the product website: http://gtriage.com/