[ocaml-biz] basics of Branding

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Brian Hurt wrote:
>
> If we're going to be stealing the style of an artist, I vote
> for M.C.
> Escher.  In addition to being stylistic, it's also geek cool and
> represented the fundamentally
> recursive/reflective/mathematical nature of
> Ocaml.
> http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg

But, why do we want "recursive, reflective, mathematical" as the brand
identity of OCaml?  That sounds like a pitch to pure academics.  This is
why I'm saying we have to define the brand identity first.  There's
*lots* of kewl looking artwork out there.  I could point you at all
sorts of fantastic Buddhist shrines all over Asia.  But what message
does the art send?  What demographic are we trying to reach?  I say,
we're not trying to sell to academics.

I don't know that "It's French" is a good brand identity for OCaml.  I
like Matisse and so forth.  But I'm not sure what haute cuisine, bottles
of wine, nice countrysides, joie de vivre, and so forth have to do with
an engineering product.  It all sounds rather loosy goosey for an
engineering product.

One camp in the Python crowd wanted to do a more humanistic logo.  They
had a justification for that: Python is rather easy for people to use,
so why not play that up?  The same cannot be said about OCaml.  "This
relates really well to human beings" is just not its strong point.
OCaml is better at "This performs, this scales, this is robust."

If I were to invoke something French about OCaml, I'd want to invoke
some grand French engineering project.  The Eiffel Tower would be
perfect, were it not for the language Eiffel.  I'm afraid the only other
French engineering projects I can think of are the Concorde, the Statue
Of Liberty, and the Channel Tunnel.

I'm not even sure "It's French" has any value to the rest of the world.
It may in fact be seen as a downright negative.  France isn't known as a
powerhouse of the high tech world.  To the degree that anyone (at least
in the USA) thinks anything about France at all, it is seen as an
intellectually snobby culture.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
                          - anonymous entrepreneur