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Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by wvenable on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @06:47PM (#17913521)
Companies are deathly afraid of introducing new brands and cling to the misguided idea of expanding their existing brand into unrelated territories. Usually this results in the brand losing all meaning.

So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory (social media). The technical aspect or what users actually want is a afterthought.

Microsoft could release their own alternative to current social media apps but they won't just start small and build a new brand.

Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by whatshisface on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @07:17PM (#17913698)
Brands are typically associated with external reputations, but nobody has more exposure to a brand than the employees of the company that owns it. As a result the brand has greater power inside the company than anywhere else - however much a person will say "I'll use this because the name Skype makes me feel good," so much more will Microsoft people say, "I will approve of this because the Skype name makes me feel good."
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by ethbro on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @08:00PM (#17913951)
> So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory

Did someone mention Skype for Business? (... Live 360 ME)

Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by cm2187 on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @03:28AM (#17915763)
And given how Microsoft trashed the skype brand, I wonder why they thought it was a good idea to use it for a new product.
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by Jaruzel on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @08:37AM (#17917331)
Even Skype for Business is now being deprecated, and Teams promoted in its place.
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by orev on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @09:18PM (#17914359)
See also: Firefox
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by wvenable on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @10:25PM (#17914616)
https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-bra...

I made a comment about this in a similar vain: Mozilla wants to overload the Firefox name to the point where it's totally meaningless. The success of the Firefox name is no doubt the reason but this fails to recognize that's not how names work. This direction is exactly the reason why Nintendo called their console "WiiU" and that turned out about as well as this ultimately will.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Firefox being the name of a single product. The entire underlying premise of this redesign is flawed.

Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by pssflops on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @12:14AM (#17914986)
What is especially notable about this is that Nintendo recently announced that their Just Dance 2019 game will come out on Wii and NOT the WiiU.
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by Jonnax on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @02:40AM (#17915553)
Just dance is made by Ubisoft not Nintendo.
Re:Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories and squ... by Dreami on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @12:27AM (#17915028)
Just for nitpicking, the Wikipedia article says Wii U too (although I know that was a failure, I was just looking for this because it seemed interesting)