Let’s take a walk down branding memory lane.  The so-called video format wars of the eighties have been pored over from all directions, but they’re well worth another look at through the branding lens.
The video format wars went something like this.  Sony introduced BetaMax in the mid 1970s.  It was the first product of its kind.  It had no competition and 100% of the market.  Ten years later and BetaMax had been trounced by newcomer VHS.

This bit of history can tell you a lot about how successful branding works.  Now VHS wasn’t just one company’s product, but the branding point is this: you can be the first on the market with your product and it can be terrific, but if you forget your customers and someone else remembers them, then you’re finished…

Did you know that the Hydrox Cookie was the first chocolate sandwich cookie with vanilla-filling in the marketplace?  Yes!  The Oreo cookie came later.  Can anyone tell me where I can find a good Hydrox anymore (other than on Wikipedia here)? The target market?  Children and they liked the Oreo better because it was sweeter!  Need I say more!

And forgetting their customers was what Sony’s BetaMax did.  Basically, they focused on their product in a best-thing-since-sliced-bread sort of way and didn’t listen to the fact that their customers wanted bulkier two to three hour tapes (to record movies off TV, of course!).  Instead, the design types drove the decisions at BetaMax and rejected making lower quality tapes that were longer than an hour.  As a result they cut their product off from their customers who didn’t care as much for quality as they did for the ability to get as much recording onto the tape as possible without having to sit there and change tapes!!!  VHS met this need and did it at a price regular people were willing to pay.

Eventually, the folks at Sony caught on and extended tape times, but it was too late.  The format wars were lost.

Bottom line: In marketing terms, the “core” product whether it’s a car or a video recorder is just the start.  All sorts of other features support a brand and its these features that you, the brander, must recognize and develop.  You have the power to control them and to profit from them, if you listen to your customers and deliver what they need.  BetaMax was an excellent product, but its makers didn’t push the right features of their brand!!!  It’s always about your customers!  And once you get that most important fact your product will be loved by your customers and a brand will be born!!!  Period.  End of story.
And, remember, it’s always easier when you keep branding in mind!

Here some more takes on the format wars:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2003/jan/25/comment.comment

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/compare/betamax-vhs.html

http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2006/04/26/Scene/Betamax.Vs.Vhs.An.OldSchool.Technology.Battle-1877682.shtml

http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/howbetadied.htm

http://shalindermahindru.blogspot.com/2007/09/vhs-vs-betamax-format-war.html

http://www.vhstodvd.co.uk/history.htm

And here’s a contrarian who says it wasn’t the long play option that made VHS the winner:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/6178-the-wall-st-journal-s-faulty-conclusion-from-the-vhs-betamax-war-sne