Anyone Got a Light?

Pithy and trite plays on words aside, I’m going to go on record and say that I think the new branding from Business Objects is pretty strong. Now I say this as a personal opinion, not as a company spokesperson, as well as saying up front that I was on the team that chose the concept and creative ideas. Most interestingly, the same agency that did the Business Objects work, Eleven, also did earlier work for Hyperion (the professorial old-style pictures in black and white if you remember from a few years ago—ugh, and wow, what range!).

Brands are funny things to work on, and incredibly hard to get your hands around in the B2B space. There are some, but definitely only a few, technology brands that strong in the B2B space today—even the tech. companies that are most famous, like Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and heck, even Intel, are all marketed to a consumer audience. In terms of B2B, maybe Cisco stands out, maybe IBM, maybe SAP and Oracle—but not many others, and we’re talking a population of hundreds of thousands of technology companies.

So it’s an ambitious task at the outset given your run of the mill budget constraints and issues of global reach. Does the brand translate across borders? Does it mean the same thing in Hong Kong as it does in Harrisburg? Tough to say and tough to predict. But fun to find out.

Which is why a project like the one the Business Objects has embarked on should be applauded and admired for its scope and ambition, if not its audacity and brazenness in a sea full of blandly branded software technology companies. Just standing out, of course and being a poser doesn’t move a market—just ask our friends at Blue Martini. But taking a new stand and being willing to look different as you take the stand, AND having people think of you differently BECAUSE of that new stand, now that’s a rare feat. And Business Objects is trying to cross that chasm right now. We won’t know for awhile if it was successful, but it will be fun watching the story unfold and I for one hope they make it.