the past couple of days...
Thursday, June 2, 2005 posted by Yaron Guez
I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at competitor’s websites. I’ve put together a document outlining their different price models, features, prospective targets, and pitches. It appears that there are relatively few, if any, products approaching the specific niche that we’re targeting, which is good to know. The basic functionality of our product has a lot in common with many alternatives, but what will set it apart is our target audience as well as our approach to a specific problem. Pricing is going to be a significant issue to address, as whichever scheme we end up going with will have a drastic effect on how this thing fairs.
I’ve been shooting around different name ideas. I’ve put together a list of different words that can be grouped in various combinations for a good name. I’m torn between a two word combination that conveys the products functionality and a one word name that is irrelevant to the functionality but which stands out in the customers’ minds more (think Internet Explorer vs. Firefox, ShareScan vs. Kazaa, Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, etc). At this point, I’m leaning a bit more towards the one-word irrelevant name since there are so many similar products out there, a functional name might get lost in the mix. But it’s definitely still up in the air.
I’ve started writing out a FAQ for the website. I’ve also been reading Al Ries and Jack Trout’s advertising bible, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind that Joel gave me. It’s a really interesting book and has a lot of pertinent information that will help set our product apart in the minds of our customers.
I feel this product has a lot of potential to do very well. This project is proving to be a very interesting undertaking.