Question

Topic: Branding

App Branding: Separate Product?

Posted by christopherickes on 1/2/2015 at 11:45 AM ET 250 Points
Hello,

Creating 2 products in the same industry. Each product has very different purposes but overlap part of their target demographic.

For example, let's assume the industry is cooking. Product 1 is an app that times each step of a recipe and alerts when time is up. Product 2 is an app that is a recipe database. It is possible that these can communicate but not necessary for either to work.

Would you recommend
1) Keep the 2 apps separate with separate brand names and separate domain names.
Example: app.kitchentimer.com and app.recipedatabase.com

OR

2) Incorporate them together as 2 products from the same company?
Example: timer.ourcookingcompany.com and recipes.ourcookingcompany.com?

Our current arguments:
We would choose #1 because we have 2 strong, keyword branded domain names that are descriptive and will be easy to optimize for search. This also allows the companies to be sold independently later down the road.
We choose #2 because we could create a stronger brand with more options coming from the brand thus increasing trust and cross selling possibilities.

Thanks for your thoughts.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/2/2015 at 3:06 PM Accepted
    Divide them. They're different applications with differing purposes. When someone buys one, offer the other as a one-time offer, cross sell option (same niche, different product).
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/2/2015 at 5:06 PM Accepted
    I'm with Gary. The benefit is different for each brand. If you try to smush them together (yes, "smush" is the technical term) you'll end up with a brand strategy that is sub-optimal for both.

    I also don't buy your argument for option #2: "... create a stronger brand with more options coming from the brand ..." More options makes a brand weaker, not stronger. SINGLE-MINDED makes a brand stronger.

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/3/2015 at 12:56 PM Member
    I likewise agree with Gary & Michael. Keep 'em separate. But you can also have the company subdomains point to the separate domains, should that be useful.
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