Brand Failures_ The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time - Matt Haig [91]
WAP’s rough ride has been made even worse by the remarkable, and generally unpredicted, success of SMS. While WAP had been touted as a ‘killer app’ for wireless devices, the considerably less flashy SMS received little attention. When it suddenly emerged that in many parts of the world there were 10 SMS users for every one WAP user, and that those SMS users were considerably more devoted than their weary WAP counterparts, it inevitably ruffled a few feathers.
The rumours regarding the death of WAP have been greatly exaggerated though as effective WAP applications have finally emerged. For most marketers however, WAP was something of a no-go area. The Financial Times has dubbed WAP marketing ‘the least interesting type of wireless marketing’.
To be fair, many of the problems with WAP are not really its fault. After all WAP is only a protocol, and not a bad one at that. However, the term WAP has extended to encompass the entire mobile internet experience via WAP-enabled devices. And, up until now, that experience has been patchy to say the least.
As any brand strategist would agree, the success of a product or service depends not simply on its value, but rather its perceived value. So, whatever WAP will be able to offer mobile users in the future, the negative perception will take a while to erase. Even the WAP evangelists started to realize that it suffers from a certain public image problem. For instance, as far back as 2002 the staunchly pro-WAP website WAPInsight (www.wapinsight.com) conceded that ‘the signs are increasing that WAP as a brand name is dying’. Today even that website itself has vanished from view! The site reported the demise of the UK chain of retail stores run by MPC Telecom, called TheWAPStore, and said the ‘WAP’ element of the name sparked off negative associations among the public.
Whether WAP will disappear for good still remains to be seen and as more powerful mobile phones emerge the mobile internet seems to have a positive future. However, the negative connotations of the WAP name means that a new acronym may have to be developed.
Lessons from WAP
Be useful. WAP has suffered from a distinct lack of content mobile users could find useful on a WAP-based wireless web. Although many companies have experimented with WAP sites, information underload remained a problem.
Be simple. WAP has also suffered from comparisons with the more straightforward SMS. Unfavourable comparisons to Japanese I-mode technology have also added salt to WAP’s wounds.
Don’t overstate your case. The initial WAP hype, which reached its hyperbolic peak in 1999–2000, overstated its case. One UK operator’s campaign featuring a WAP-enabled surfboard, and many others like it, gave the impression of a mobile internet ‘surfer’s paradise’. The protocol clearly couldn’t deliver on this promise.
Be user-friendly. Jakob Nielsen, ex-Sun Microsystems engineer and ‘guru of web usability’ highlighted WAP’s ‘miserable usability’. In 2000, Nielsen advised businesses to ‘skip the current generation of WAP’. Slow connections and downloads for the first wave of WAP meant that mobile users downloading WAP sites (particularly those with graphics) had a lot of spare time on their hands.
84 Dell’s Web PC
Not quite a net gain
In late 1999, computer manufacturer Dell launched the Web PC. The computer was small (a mere 10 inches in height) and came in five different colours. The aim of the computer was to simplify the experience of surfing the internet, while at the same time being attractive. ‘The quality of the customer’s experience will be the defining source of loyalty in the internet era,’ Michael Dell told the press at the time. ‘The Web PC is breaking new ground for our industry as we take our one-on-one relationships with customers to a new level of helpfulness.’
One of the key features of the product was an ‘e-support button’, which instantly launched