How to Overtake Zoom and Gain Global Tech Leadership

The human brain works in strange ways. It has close to 100 terabytes of memory but when it wants to make buying decisions it still uses categories.

Nobody walks into a showroom and says: I want to buy a car. Please show me all the cars you have for sale.

Most people would categorize their needs and would be looking for sedans or four wheel drives or hatchbacks.

Categories Have Leaders

Most consumers have room in their minds for only a few brands in each category. Many categories have just two brands. Duracell and Energizer in appliance batteries. Crest and Colgate in toothpaste. Zoom and GoToMeeting in Video conferencing.

Once a category has a leader it is almost impossible to be replaced. The Great Cola wars of the 1980s are over but Coca Cola still leads the category today.

When Google introduced Google Meet and Facebook launched Facebook Messenger Rooms to compete with Zoom, they were committing the classic positioning mistake and trying the impossible.

Google and Facebook may be tech giants with immense marketing power but the battle for brand supremacy is fought in the consumer's brain and the Video Conferencing category has been taken.

The Name Defines the Leader.

The most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product.

The leading pasta brand in Italy is Barilla. So the owners of the brand introduced Barilla in the American market with the slogan, Italy's #1 pasta. Three years later, Barilla was the No.1 pasta brand in America.

Facebook Messenger is a fun chat app in the consumer’s mind and will remain that no matter how hard FB tries to convert that into a video conferencing app for business.

Facebook Messenger Rooms should re-brand itself into ‘Baselook’ which rhymes with Facebook and create a whole new category around that new brand name.

Find an Open Hole in the Mind.

Every category in the mind is either filled with a brand name, or it's not. If the category is not filled, then it's an open hole or position which your brand can easily occupy.

Tesla moved into the mind to occupy an open category called ‘electric cars.’ Today, Tesla has a market value of $164bn – more than the $104bn combined value of Detroit’s big three: General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.

The Video Conferencing category is taken and no matter how hard Google Meet and FB Messenger Rooms try to enter this category their chances are limited.

They will find far more success, if they can create a new Virtual Office category in the consumer’s mind and fill it with a brand name like ‘Baselook’.

The Virtual Office category is going to be much bigger than the Video Conferencing category, which means overtaking Zoom and claiming leadership in the tech world will happen simultaneously.

You Can't Move a Brand in the Mind.

Many billions have been wasted by companies that violate this positioning principle. IBM trying to move its brand into personal computers.

Kodak trying to move its brand into digital photography. BlackBerry trying to move its brand into touchscreen smartphones. Google Plus trying to enter Social Media. The list is endless and this exercise in futility is called the line-extension trap.

Google Meet sounds like a great name in the board room but when the consumer is scrambling to find a quick virtual office solution they will remember brand names like Baselook.

A quick look at business history reveals that the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 Firm is going to be 14 years by 2026. About half of today’s S&P 500 firms will be replaced over the next 10 years and firms that follow the tenants of positioning stand a better chance.

In today’s hyper-competitive global economy, only brands that can constantly re-invent themselves can survive the creative destruction that fuels economic prosperity.

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