Brand Attribute Fatigue (aka the Google Problem)

A brand is a proper noun. And it should ideally stand for something unique and be different from anything else that is out there. And a brand should have just one or two attributes.

For example, the brand Google is fantastic. It stands for "search." It gives the best search results.

But as Google has become successful, it has launched a number of new offerings that are not in the search space. It tried Google Video, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Wave, Chrome, Android etc. In short, it's trying to become less different. It's moving away from being a search company to becoming yet another technology company (albeit with a huge amount of smart engineers and money.)

Our minds like clarity and clear hierarchies in product categories. And minds get fatigued if a brand has too many attributes. Now our brains are becoming fatigued by all the things that Google stands for (search? video? phone operating system?)

Granted that Google is sitting pretty today with all the billions that it is making. But will it still be able to retain it's leadership position in search after 10 years if it continues to go in so many different directions all at once? What if a different kind of search engine comes along that is focused on any one type of search? Will Google lose market share? I bet it will. And the reason will be not because of better technology but because Google created brand attribute fatigue by putting its label on too many ideas.