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on clear messaging

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There's a new settop box in town. The ROKU streams Netflix video to your TV. And the folks at ROKU have answered the top concerns in five bullets.


Alas, it doesn't fix the problem that the studios will not allow Netflix to stream all of their content so there's only 10,000 movies instead of 100,000+. And strangely, it doesn't have a hard drive so it cannot buffer the stream, which seems a poor decision.

In any case, the messaging on this is so clean and clear I have to admire it. Maybe it's just easier for consumer goods but could you do the same with your positioning?

Instant Entertainment?

Posted by Roger L. Cauvin at 2008-05-30 12:25 PM
I do like the clarity of the messaging. But even five bullet points is too much for positioning. Ries and Trout tell us that the brand should stand for a single idea in the mind of the customer. The bullet points are fine, but they ideally should support the overarching idea.

In this case, it seems the overarching idea is "instant entertainment".

Missed opportunity

Posted by Saeed Khan at 2008-06-04 11:14 AM
Netflix should have taken a lesson from Apple...and their own branding group....

The box is so darn ugly! Why not make it something slim and nice to look at. And why not make it red to match their branding. Perhaps make it look like one of their DVD envelopes or something.

Seriously. The AppleTV is not a great product. But it looks great. This product sounds great, but looks like something from the 1980s.

Saeed