Comments on: b2b to b2c – Discussion topic

By: Mikal Lewis

Mikal Lewis — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:59:53 +0000

I’d add cisco to the list.
They’ve acquire their way into the space with Linksys but haven’t had any success under the cisco name.

By: George

George — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:26:44 +0000

Second on IBM. IIRC Lenovo are no longer IBM products — I’m sure if this is wrong, I’ll be corrected.

I’m thinking Xerox. They failed miserably at B2C.

I wish I could add AMC/Hummer to this list (too soon?) but since Chrysler purchased them, the brand history is a little muddled.

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:02:34 +0000

Sun with their “we’re the dot in .net” comes to mind. Though I’m not sure which b2c product they were trying to sell. But it seemed to be targeted at consumers (the ads were playing in movie theaters etc.).

@David: IBM thinkpads (now Lenovo) are/were certainly a successful consumer or at least “prosumer” brand.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:08:30 +0000

Intel also marketed a WiFi system to consumers in the late 90s. It was called Anypoint. They wanted to compete with Apple’s Airport, even mimicking the name. Note that Anypoint and Airport each begin with “A”, have a “P” in the middle and end with a “T”.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:30:57 +0000

About 10 years ago I was hired to name Intel’s new line of wireless computer mice and keyboards. Ultimately, the decided to stick with chips.

The funny bit is that I spent an hour presenting names, asking for feed back from the 20 client-side “participants’. I had an hour to go, but no comments from the room. I stopped and explained I needed participation. They looked genuinely puzzled. After a few awkward moments, one of them had an “Aha!” moment and said, “Oh, we are just here to collect data, we are not decision makers”. I asked if at some point if I could speak with those making the naming choice and they said, “Oh my, no. Not only can’t we even speak to them, we will never know who they are”

By: David Scott

David Scott — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:54:36 +0000

IBM comes to mind. I know they sell laptops (or used to?) to the consumer market, but I rarely ever see one. My guess is they can’t be selling very many.