Motorola vs. Razr

There really are no shortcuts to creating a winning brand. If there were, believe you me, they would be readily exploited. Motorola, who makes over four dozen products, got trounced again, recording their worst quarter to date. They also fell to third in the category of mobile phones.

According to an article by Macworld, "The company is suffering today from its strategy of cutting prices to win market share. In the short run, that helped it gain high visibility with the popular Razr, but excess inventory has allowed competitors to swoop in and gain share."

Where did they go wrong? For one, a lack of focus. Who is number one in mobile phones? Nokia. When I say mobile phone, what comes to the mind? Nokia. What is a Nokia? It's a mobile phone. Years ago, they made everything from truck tires to (of all things) toilet paper. They were also losing close to $1.5 million a year. When they spun off their other companies and focused on mobile phones, they soon became number one in mobile phones in Europe. Now, they are number one in the world.

What is a Motorola? It's a Bluetooth headset, mobile phone, wireless Internet, pager, data solution. The list goes on and on.

In mobile phones, their big winner, the Razr, became commoditized to death and treated like a product, not a brand.

Moto has struggled to harvest another "it" phone (the serendipitous blessing bestowed upon the once mighty Razr). And so, copycat phones such as the Krzr and the Rizr were released. But all they did was remind people of the Razr.

What Moto should have done was treat the Razr as a brand unto itself. The Razr brand needs constant innovation and updates. It should not be commoditized, as they did with the first one. Once everyone could get a Razr for free, the fun was gone. Those who paid several hundred for it were bummed, because the phone's elitist soul had been sucked right out of it.

Moto should not have asked, "How can we sell as many units as possibly, no matter what the cost?" They should have asked, "How can we deepen our market penetration with this expensive, elite phone?"

But now the Razr brand has been tainted. The Razr 2, which will retail for $300 (or so) in September will likely have a very quick, very short-lived surge in sales. And Moto, desperate to win back their market share, will again slice the price of the Razr (a funny concept: slicing a Razr). Once gone, clients rarely return.

Perhaps Motorola's Razr should take a clue from Occam's razor: entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. (The simplest answer is usually the best, in other words.)

The Razr did not need a Krzr or a Rizr, it needed the Razr 2, sans the destroyed brand image that Moto managed to craft.

Wow. Krzy.