Caterpillar Cowboy

performableblog:

Last week I wrote about how Apple’s marketing message for the iPad is all about easy and I suggested that ease-of-use, speed, and price were the three universal benefits that any product or service can take advantage of. 

There is no better example of marketing focused on speed than what Google is doing with its Chrome browser. Take, for example, the copywriting on the browser’s landing page: 

This copy is focused exclusively on speed, using the word “fast” four times and the terms lightning speed, snap, and quickly elsewhere. If there is one thing that Google wants to communicate, it’s that this is a fast browser. 

So it’s not surprising that in their latest promotional video for the browser Google continues its message of speed. 

In both Apple’s and Google’s cases, their marketing messages are focused on their current market. Apple is positioning its iPad as the easier alternative to laptops and netbooks…it’s easier to browse, read, and watch video than ever before. Google is positioning their browser against the frustrations people have with slower browsers IE and Firefox. These messages are not necessarily static, they might not be the messages Apple and Google use a year from now. But in the current market, these are the message that they’re using to push their latest products and services. 

Finally, notice how simple these messages are. They are as basic and universal as you can get. Chrome is faster. iPad is easier. That’s really all Google and Apple are saying…they’re beating the same simple drum over and over. This suggests that the tendency we all feel to talk about our product in many different ways, expounding all the wonderful things it can do, might not be as strong as if we focused on a single, overarching message.

So there is another message here that we can take advantage of: there is a strength in simplicity and repetition.