What is the difference between a product-led proposition and a brand-led proposition?
Let's take Hoover and Dyson, for example. Hoover is a home appliances brand famous for making a vacuum cleaner. We use "Hoover" as a verb every day, just as we "Google," "Photoshop," and "Uber," we "Hoover." In fact, "Hoover" is so much of a verb that many people do not even realise it is a brand.
Let's compare that to Dyson. Dyson also make vacuum cleaners, but their brand is about innovation, design, and technology. They make vacuum cleaners, but they also make hand dryers, hair straighteners, and headphones; they are even into sustainable farming. They also tried to make electric cars. I wouldn't have a problem driving around in a Dyson, but I would never drive around in a Hoover, because Hoover makes vacuum cleaners. But so does Dyson.
It is easy for a product-centred brand to get known for one thing and to do one thing really well, but that is all that you can ever be. Whereas with a brand-led proposition, you can develop multiple products and services that all connect together and create an ecosystem, because it is not about the one product or the one service; it is about the whole story. That is the difference between a product-centred proposition and a brand-centred proposition.
