Case Studies
AOL
You've Got Branding
Situation
The company that became America Online started out as Quantum Computer Services. Quantum came to Boscobel with a terrific product, but there was limited awareness, even confusion, in the marketplace.
New name, new logo, new product — Quantum's challenges required a multidisciplinary approach.
Objectives
- Rename the Quantum product without confusing consumers.
- Establish product identity and increase consumer mindshare.
- Develop successful direct response marketing based on research.
Tactics
Boscobel conducted a comprehensive Naming Workshop and revealed that Quantum already owned a name, America Online, that would be ideal for both the online service and the company as a whole. Bonus benefit: The abbreviation AOL also worked as a stock ticker symbol.
Boscobel then held a Brand Destination Workshop™ to guide AOL in creating a brand identity that would rise above the din of the marketplace. The original tag line, “So easy to use, no wonder we’re America’s fastest growing Internet service,” was used for years in a modified form befitting AOL’s market dominance: “So easy to use, no wonder we’re number one.”
To anchor the new brand, Boscobel developed not one but two logos – or rather, one look with two versions. Boscobel created a product logo with “Online” in a custom-made cursive font as a kinder, gentler version for consumers, plus a corporate logo with more formal typography to convey strength and stability to investors.
With the brand identity in place, it was time to take their product to the consumer, literally. Boscobel developed the first-ever direct mail campaign that enclosed a software diskette. (Boscobel president Joyce Bosc was inspired by receiving a shampoo sample in the mail. Softer hair... software... hmmm.) Boscobel also pioneered magazine ads with attached software.
Results
Direct response advertising allowed extensive testing, for example, by using A/B/C split insertions (or in-line testing) in magazines. Most of all, including a diskette put the software directly into the hands of consumers so they could respond by trying AOL — which they did at an astounding response rate of 70 percent!