Who Needs Product Differentiation When You've Got Donald Trump?

from the branding-is-all-you-ever-need dept

Branding is everything for some companies… and anything associated with Donald Trump tends to fit into that category. Still, in an age where the ability to take an existing product and just slap your brand on it and pretend it’s something new, isn’t it worth wondering what the product differentiation strategy is? You see it with phone service these days, whether MVNOs or even various branded VoIP plays. It’s especially common with websites, though, since it’s so easy to rebrand them. We’re often approached to offer such things ourselves, such as a Techdirt-branded jobs portal or a Techdirt-branded magazine subscription offering. The problem with all of these is that they have no differentiation at all. It’s the identical offering that plenty of other sites have, just with a different logo swapped in. We generally turn down these offers, because they don’t do much for our brand. Donald Trump, however, is not above such things. His latest, is that he’s launched his very own travel site — as if there weren’t already enough travel sites online. So what might you expect from a Donald Trump travel site? Well, it promises great deals — and you might think that includes expensive (if garish) resorts and such. However, poking around the site, it doesn’t take long to discover that Trump’s travel site is simply a rebranded version of Travelocity — with the same prices and the same results (though, not displayed in as useful a manner or with nearly as much info). The best part, though, is that all of the hotels come with “Trump Deal” ratings, suggesting that Trump was letting you know where that Motel 6 ranks on his quality-meter. Except… the Trump Deal ratings just happen to be identical to the AAA ratings found on Travelocity. Apparently Trump even needs to rebrand AAA ratings in his own image these days.


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Comments on “Who Needs Product Differentiation When You've Got Donald Trump?”

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17 Comments
Byron Smart (user link) says:

Re: sad...

However most billionaires or successful people do all methods they can once the spot is shining. His show is losing it’s shine from the quality of contestants, thus he is going broader next season. He has product companies flashing their products and uses plugs more than what his hair looks like it was formed from. I dont see this being successful or even useful since I think this medium would die out when his show runs out of steam. But it might profit 2-3 million and people will not care. After all this is a man with a bad hair do, arrogant persona, and someone that people love to hate, however he redeems his bad decisions by focusing on better ones in the future..

Byron Smart (user link) says:

Trumped Reviews

Love him or hate him, Trump does have good some decent opinions when it comes to the travel industry. His bulidings and hotels would have all failed if not placed in fairly good locations that accomidate travel. Packages that accomidate travel and experience are best reviewed by those who expect a certain level of service.

However, he is not going to be fair and balanced (LOL) about the reviews, because of partnerships with organizations that he will promote to promote him. So it really depends on his current business acquistions and or mergring decision level at the time of his stamp of approval. However he has been pretty on the ball with most projects… And the ones that fail he learned the art of the court system to bail out quietly without having to foreclose assets..

So regardless it will be intresting..

areef rakhangi (user link) says:

Whats Donald trump got to do with ratings

Every body has his own clear mind. Donald trump is one successful man now and its his luck that he almost good at whatever he is doing. His convictions are strong and his body language perfect. He is fair well balanced many a times. Times are changing and we will have to keep looking at changes and accept them soon. You have one type of rating today and is a measurement in one form. tommorrow measurement standards may change and then there will be one common standard. But anyway i love donald trump

Suzan Heglin (user link) says:

Product Differentiation Up and Down

Marketing strategy is: when you’re small you imitate the big guy, as close as possible, and when you’re big you differentiate. Our problem is that we are still relatively small and people think we have the same product as the bigger guys because we market to a similar niche. In fact, our technology is different, better, and folks don’t believe it could work because they’re conditioned to believe the other technology is the only way. The challenge is to ride in the wake of the big guy without also standing in his shadow . . .

Suzan Heglin (user link) says:

Product Differentiation Up and Down

Marketing strategy is: when you’re small you imitate the big guy, as close as possible, and when you’re big you differentiate. At APConnections, our problem is that we are still relatively small and people think we have the same product as the bigger guys because we market to a similar niche. In fact, our technology is different, better, and folks don’t believe it could work because they’re conditioned to believe the other technology is the only way. The challenge is to ride in the wake of the big guy without also standing in his shadow . . .

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