What's In a Name?

[Old Member]

Now that I'm past my 15 day trial and many of you are as well, I wonder how much effect, positive or negative, the phone's name had on buying it?

Droid Maxx by Motorola is a LONG name for a product. I do realize that Motorola kept the Droid brand because once you create a brand, you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to milk that brand as long as you can. It provides recognition to everyone and reminds them of all of the advertising that has come before.

The name has taken a few shots. The funniest one that I've seen was:

Maxx, Ultra and Mini? What are these phones or femine hygiene products?

So my question is, would you have noticed your Maxx and bought it as readily if Motorola had dropped the DROID branding and called it the Motorola Maxx?

Does the Droid branding do more to help or hurt sales now?

When Droid was originally pushed through I remember hearing it was HEAVILY marketed towards men. Now I hear the the Droid Maxx is really a device marketed towards men and power users in particular. The Moto X is marketed towards the average daily user.

I considere myself an average daily user, not a power user. Now I may be a power user 5-10 days per year, but other than that I would say that I am an average user. I love the Maxx.

I think the Droid brand needs to die or at the minimum reborn to incorporate a different personna.

Thoughts?

 

[Lucky Armpit]

Interesting topic. I thought the Droid brand a few years ago was exciting but it's definitely gotten old. The Droid name had no effect - positive nor negative - on my decision to buy one. I've had Motorola phones and have always had positive things to say about them. I went away from Moto and tried another brand (Samsung) and was burned by their sub-par build quality. I went BACK to Motorola with the Razr Maxx and said to myself, "Why did you ever go away from them?"

In short, I wouldn't have cared if they called it the Motorola TK-421 Droid Maximum Whoopie-Doo Gee-Whiz version; I still would have bought it. Moto's superior build quality, strong radios, and minimal skin kept me coming back despite the name of the device.

 

[doogald]

Now that I'm past my 15 day trial and many of you are as well, I wonder how much effect, positive or negative, the phone's name had on buying it?

Droid Maxx by Motorola is a LONG name for a product.

It's shorter than Motorola DROID Razr Maxx HD, the previous product. This is going in a better direction, not worse.

I do realize that Motorola kept the Droid brand because once you create a brand, you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to milk that brand as long as you can. It provides recognition to everyone and reminds them of all of the advertising that has come before.

The DROID brand belongs to Verizon, not Motorola. However, with the introduction of these handsets, Verizon and Motorola have entered into an exclusive contract of an unspecified length. Almost every previous DROID handset was made by the former Motorola Mobility, but there were a few handsets by HTC (Eris, a few Incredibles, and the DNA) and I think one Samsung.

[EDIT - I just realized that all of my Android phones have been DROID-branded. I've had the HTC Droid Eris, the Droid Bionic (for two weeks - I exchanged it because of terrible data problems with non-LTE networks at the time), the Droid 3, and now the Droid Maxx.]

The name has taken a few shots. The funniest one that I've seen was:

Maxx, Ultra and Mini? What are these phones or femine hygiene products?

The Apple iPad had the same jokes made. Motorola and Verizon can hope that these devices are half as successful as the iPad has been for Apple and they will be very, very happy.

So my question is, would you have noticed your Maxx and bought it as readily if Motorola had dropped the DROID branding and called it the Motorola Maxx?

I don't buy things because they are named well or poorly. I buy them because they are the best product for me. I hope. (I'm not always right.)

At the same time, under the previous contract, Motorola sold versions of the DROID phones internationally under different names - the Milestone series for the keyboard DROIDs, the Motorola RAZR also had a few international models. My assumption is that the exclusive contract with Verizon for DROID phones will be truly exclusive - Verizon will be the only company getting the specific form factors for these and future DROID handsets. So, Motorola will be able to sell the Motorola X anywhere they want, but the Maxx form factor will only be found on Verizon. I do not know if this is the case, but I haven't heard any rumors at all about the Maxx being available internationally under another name.

When Droid was originally pushed through I remember hearing it was HEAVILY marketed towards men.

IMHO, this was because of Verizon's ridiculous advertising campaign, with the dumb psuedo-robots and whatever.

(Which reminds me - I have seen no DROID ads at all for these new phones on any media. No TV ads, nothing in my daily paper [The Boston Globe], since the phone was introduced two weeks ago. I wonder if they are planning to kick off a campaign with the start of the football season tomorrow night?)

I think the Droid brand needs to die or at the minimum reborn to incorporate a different personna.

For all of what I said before about Verizon's bad advertising campaigns for the DROID phones, I think that this has been an incredibly successful line for Verizon. The OG Droid was the first Android smartphone on Verizon - the first non-Windows Mobile or Blackberry smartphone on Verizon - and Verizon hit the ball out of the park with Android. At a time when Verizon customers could not get the iPhone, Verizon was able to help Google build brand awareness for Android at a critical time of its development.

Now, Verizon has the iPhone, and Samsung has extended the Android brand even more. I'm sure that Verizon (and Motorola) is happy to use whatever brand equity that they've gained with the DROID models and ride it as long as it brings in enough customers to be worth the expense.

 

[tbhausen]

I couldn't care less what they call these things--if they (like this one) build something that appeals to me, I'll buy it. As for the Maxx, I'm glad I did (especially since the Note 3 release today left me feeling it's just too "gimmicky").

 

[Thom]

(Which reminds me - I have seen no DROID ads at all for these new phones on any media.)

About two or three days ... TV ... the phone kicking around in the back of a cab.

... Thom

 

[18t]

wish it was the moto maxx. then we wouldnt have the stupid droid boot or be further convincing uneducated users that android and droid are the same thing.

ps- i have seen quite a few droid commercials on tv.

 

[speede541]

I bought the Maxx in spite of its name. Pretty much all Droid-branded phones before this one I dismissed as gimmicky house-branded devices, i.e.not worthy of my attention. That's what brand association will do sometimes.

The "Maxx" branding actually got me to take notice last generation (but they also did damage by announcing the Maxx version just weeks behind the regular phone -- again I wrote then off).

What got me this time were these two: vanilla OS, and Moto X coverage (themed along the "Motorola reborn" storyline). Google involvement lent a good measure of reassurance that this was worth looking at.

 

[mistermojorizi]

Less syllables than moto x by Motorola

 

[Outatime]

Ultimately I buy the device on the device's merits. But I have no ill will towards the Droid lineup. I actually think it's kind of cool from both a geek point of view (Star Wars) and a nostalgia point of view (reminds me of my old Incredible).

 

[Optimus Prune]

I haven't been on Verizon in years, but just happen to be changing companies and had the opportunity to choose whatever carrier and phone I wanted to use with the new organization. I knew basically nothing about the Droid brand since my only affiliation with Verizon was my mobile hotspot. The first time the Maxx entered my thoughts was when CNet put out an article and noted that all of the new X features were on the Maxx as well. The Droid brand had no impact one way or the other on my decision.

 

[Highland Ranger]

I bought Motorola not droid (Verizon brand). Been hooked since my Startac (1999). They make tough equipment. I've been universally disappointed when trying other brands.

 

[LoBatt]

+1 on the Startac. Had a couple Moto phones before that and all were solid. I loved my OG Droid but sorta thought the Droid brand after that aimed for the less informed. I'm eating my words now. Coming from my rooted and ROM'd Gnex which I fiddled with constantly with different kernel settings, etc., this phone is awesome. Smooth, fast, near stock and awesome battery life.

 

[Highland Ranger]

Yup. Can't think of a reason to root. Does it all, fast and all day no matter how long the day.

Using it a lot I am hard pressed to put it on the charger at night with less than 50% battery left.

And the inductive charging, no fumbling with will cables - love it.

 

[lewwill]

Personally like the Droid line, had a DX and Bionic, which were excellent and my avatar reflects that.