Platforms and Brands

Frenemies or Friends with Benefits !

It took Apple approximately 25 weeks during the Covid19 pandemic to add ONE Thousand Billion Dollars to its market cap. In the same time period, I added approximately ONE Thousand Subscribers for my weekly newsletter. So, if it is of any consolation to you, you are like a Billion Dollar for me ! Do not ask for CASH ! And if you are thinking of Brand building on platforms , you must be joking ! More on that in the newsletter.
Of course, I chose to not be directly on a Social Media Platform to talk about Platforms and Businesses. I do use Twitter and LinkedIN to keep others updated about my views on Running Platform Marketing Life but with you, I prefer a direct relationship via an email every Sunday Afternoon.
So, if somebody forwarded this email to you, please sign up for an awesome, dis-intermediated and fruitful relationship by clicking on following link and subscribing to the newsletter

AND if you are a friend of the RPML, do share it with others. You can add more of your friends to the Community of Platform’ed by using the following link.

DTW

During the Week, we got more news about Apple’s continuing feud with Fortnite and more reactions to this clever ad by fortnite. Background of the feud is Fortnite’s attempts to bypass Apple and Google payment mechanism on their AppStore and PlayStore respectively. Fortnite played cheeky with a 20% discount offer for the customers if they would pay directly without using the platform’s payment mechanism which is in violation of the T&C. So, both Apple and Google removed FortNite from their respective platforms and are ready to fight it out in courts and of course in social media. Fortnite fired the first salvo by filing a law suit in the US courts and releasing a clever ad.

We could have an economic, competition or technological discussion about the whole episode but I would like to concentrate on the Brand implications. I see it as fight for access to customers and to be able to deal with them directly. Fortnite became a big brand because of the platforms and associated infrastructure provide by Apple and Google but Fortnite missed out on the direct connect with fans. Even when Fortnite grows, it actually help the platforms grow even bigger and gives them a stranglehold on the customers. It is ironic because both Apple and Google started as underdogs who challenges the hegemony of IBM and Microsoft who controlled the customers in not so distant future.
And if you are wondering about the cleverness of Fortnite’s video, please watch the original and iconic Apple Ad against the Big Blue aka IBM in 1984 !

The relationship between Brands and Platforms could be visualised through a three parallel alternative realities in a New Matrix World - Brands on platforms, Platforms as brands and Commodification of brands on platforms.

First Alternative Reality of this New Matrix World is new reality of building brands on platform age. Building a brand has become a child’s play on platforms ! I mean two of the top Ten Earning YouTubers are kids below ten years with Anastasia Radzinskaya and Ryan Kaji making 18 and 26 million USD respectively in 2019. According to a Statista Report, half of the Amazon sellers make 80-100 % of their revenue from Amazon. In the recent Prime Day 2020 sale, 209 sellers on Amazon India became crorepatis and many others were able to establish an extraordinary connect with their customers. Getting started and engaging with your customers/fans has become a matter of getting noticed and then trending on any of the big social media platforms. Imagine the story of Ronu Mondal playing out for millions of other extraordinary people who might get fame and of course money for their talent. Instagram Shop and other properties of Facebook can help Direct to Customer (D2C) brands to manage customer experience, customize content, sell and even and facilitate customer service.

CNA @ChannelNewsAsia

Singapore is getting an Apple store that sits on the water, a world’s first cna.asia/2EdCZbc

Check out the Apple Store that sits on water. I mean how do you not get fascinated by brands which have a floating store ! Thus, Second Alternative Reality of this New Matrix World is to understand that the platforms themselves are extraordinary brands.

If you look at the list of Forbe’s The 2020 World’s Most Valuable Brands, top five are AAFG+Microsoft. Facebook with its subsidiaries like WhatsApp and Instagram has billions of users and thus creates tremendous network effects for its business users. Other Social Media companies like YouTube (2 Billion), WeChat (1 Billion), TikTok (800 Millions) and Snapchat/Pinterest/Twitter (1 Billion) have become too big to be ignored by brands both big and small.

This extraordinary user base also make them extraordinary brands in their own right but also make them the absolute arbiter of their platforms.

Third Alternative Reality of this New Matrix World is the realisation that brands are dying or even worse getting commoditised on platforms. The introductory story about the fight between Apple vs Fortnite captures the essence of how brands are fighting for their survival on platforms. We have had hundreds of advertisers pull out of Facebook and they did not bat an eyelid. Essentially, all the advertisers and brands have been commoditised over FaceBook and other platforms. Taylor Swift fought a lonely battle with Spotify and Apple , managed to probably win against Apple but ultimately had to eat a humble pie with Spotify. Access to customers on platform has been weaponised and used liberally even against the other platforms. Facebook had its apps taken offline by Apple and Google ends up paying Billions of Dollars to be the default search on Apple devices.
Many celebrity brands have faced the brunt of platforms turning off their access to fans because they seem to have violated T&C. Recently, even with 16.7 million subscribers, CarryMinati could not prevent his video being pulled down by YouTube.

I have written earlier about how JIO is transforming the Brand-Consumer Relationship. Through its multiple investments including in AR/VR, Artificial Intelligence and other ConsumerTech companies, JIO is in position to create an interface between Consumers and Brands.

In this new reality, Indian Retail Brands would have to collaborate with Reliance Jio to access these JIO Customers. They have created a Benjamin Button Product and it is going to get better as more customer data is collected from multiple access points. With more vertical integration and greater leverage over customer data, we might see Jio playing favourites with brands and definitely trying to push the store labels even more aggressively.

To conclude , I would like to go back to the introduction about three alternative realities of New Matrix World and perhaps use Matrix Analogy about the outcome of the Brands Vs Platforms War.

Machines(Platforms) won against Humans (Brands) but decided to keep growing them to feed their own world while keeping them in simulation of actual life.

OTW

Over the Weekend, I completed five years of being a Marathoner. I completed my first Full Marathon during Airtel Hyderabad Marathon on 30th Aug 2015 and it was an extraordinary experience. I have been sorely missing running during the current pandemic and lockdowns. As nostalgia struck me over the weekend, I trusted my muscle memory and managed to huff & puff through to couple of 10Ks over the weekend and felt proud of myself to get it going again.

Jahnvi Kalia has been kind enough to document my running story in her blog and Instagram Page Caught in Stories. Show some love and follow her blog and Instagram page to get good Karma in return.

One of the lessons that I have learned in Long-Distance Running is the value of self-belief and mental endurance in face of extraordinary challenges. I am always in awe of ultra runners who run 100’s of miles and find the experience liberating ! I mean after a 50 miler, your body is sore , your lungs are burning, your heart is pounding and your mind is numb but your soul is nourished !

If you’re going to face a real challenge, it has to be a real challenge. You can't accomplish anything without the possibility of failure.

– Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell, Founder/Organiser of Barkley Marathons

The above mentioned quote is from the organiser of the infamously famous Barkley Marathons. It is one of the most difficult human endurance event. I mean the documentary on the event is titled- “THE BARKLEY MARATHONS: The race that eats its young”. Number of runners is limited to 40, with an obscure registration process and the selected runners are given an opportunity to back out with honor as it has been finished only 18 times by 15 runners since 1986 !

I think most people would be better off with more pain in their lives, honestly. I think that, if nothing else, they would appreciate the pain-free times more. But I think also there’s this self-induced aspect of, you’ve struggled, you’ve overcome, you’ve gotten through, then you’re confident and you both enjoy the rest of your life more, but also you feel like you can do things and you take on challenges that you wouldn’t otherwise try, and you get to points that you wouldn’t otherwise reach.

– Julian Jamison, Participant at Barkley Marathons

If you are not able to watch the full movie, do watch this short documentary titled Barkley 100 - World's most difficult and bizarre sporting event? by Documentary Network.

Push your Boundaries, Find your New Threshold and then Go Beyond it. More Power to YOU.

I Love You

Shailendra