[Data-modeling] A proposal for consumer products

Tue Dec 23 19:39:54 UTC 2008

I don't know what the right answer is, but this is obviously a complex
topic.  I decided to look up various products and see how they do in terms
of "brand name", company, etc.

I think it is fair to say that we'd want to capture the company that
ultimately owns a product.  Procter & Gamble (P&G) owns the Crest toothpaste
line, Siemens AG owns the various Siemens appliances, P&G also owns the
Charmin toilet paper line.

That said, I think these items are treated a bit differently.  Take Crest,
which is a brand of P&G.  Crest not only has toothpaste, but also
toothbrushes, floss, mouthwash, etc.  And then within each of these are more
specific products, and potentially product lines (for example,
the "Pro-Health" line of toothpastes).  http://www.crest.com/

Appliances, however, don't line up as easily.  Take Siemens and GE, who both
make refrigerators.  GE has a couple of different lines (which they call
Brands), like GE Profile, GE Monogram, etc:
http://www.geappliances.com/products/brands/.  So if we use GE Profile,
you'll see that there are side-by-side refrigerators, top-freezer models,
etc.  And then within those categories you have specific products, or
models, like the "GE Profile 42" Built-In Side-by-Side Refrigerator with
Dispenser" model # PSB42YSXSS, and there's another one "GE Profile™ 42"
Built-In Side-by-Side Refrigerator with Dispenser" but model # PSB42YGXSV.

Siemens, however, doesn't seem to have multiple models per type of
refrigerator (for lack of a better way to put it).  They have a 36"
counter-depth, a 36" french door, etc:
http://www.siemens-home.com/Appliances-Kitchen-Cooking_Refrigerators-Freezers.

Then take a look at Mitsubishi Electric's home theater TVs:
http://mitsubishi-tv.com.  These are similar to Siemens in that they
have more than one model for a "46" Diamond Premium Flat Panel TV".

Of course there's also software, and Adobe is an "easy" example.
http://www.adobe.com/products/

And, frankly, I'm afraid to look into food products! :)  Though I can give
you one example I ran into the other day: Vermont Smoke & Cure is a food
brand that is owned by Farmer's Diner, and has various products within the
Smoke & Cure name (here's a link to their bacon:
http://www.vtsmokeandcure.com/bacon-natural-c-249.html).

So I hope these examples help people think about modeling this area.  What
is the brand for each of these, versus the product, versus the company,
versus specific models, etc.  And then maybe we can start referencing
specific examples so we can talk on the same page (like brand).

evening

On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 8:55 PM, Robert Cook <robert at metaweb.com> wrote:

> OK, I think we're trying to represent the "brand" more than the branding.
>  Apple, Dell, Chevrolet, Mentos, Levalor are all brands.  Some (perhaps
> all?) are companies, but that's a co-type on the same topics.
> I should have been clearer about Apple as designer, which although often is
> the same as the brand (if it's a company or .  I don't think that's part of
> brand at all.  That's probably a property into itself (should one want to
> split that far.)  Several car models have designers who are recognizable
> people.
>
> R
>
>  On Dec 22, 2008, at 1:28 PM, evening0star wrote:
>
>  Well, there's a brand, and then there's branding.  The branding on
> Chevrolet has changed over the years (colors and fonts used, tag lines,
> logos,etc), but the brand/division/product of Chevrolet hasn't in the sense
> that it hasn't changed names, still is basically the same kind of product,
> etc.
>
>
> *> Apple is the brand for the Macbook  They are also the designer.  They
> are definitely not the manufacturer.*
>
>
> We have to be careful between brand and company.   "Apple Inc" is the
> company that makes/designs/owns these products.  A brand can't design things
> - it is a representation of a company or product/service.
>
> Are we having fun yet?? :)
>
> On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Tim Kientzle <tim at metaweb.com> wrote:
>
>> Some of the clearest examples come from the car industry: "Chevrolet"
>> is a brand owned by the General Motors Corporation.  "Chevrolet" is
>> not a company nor is it a particular product.  (But, of course,
>> "Suburban" is also a brand, as is "General Motors Corporation."  The
>> identity is not the same as the product or company, even when it has
>> the same name.  The White Knight should have been in advertising. ;-)
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>> On Dec 22, 2008, at 1:01 PM, Kirrily Robert wrote:
>>
>> > On Dec 22, 2008, at 12:46 PM, Mohammad Al-Ubaydli wrote:
>> >
>> >> Sorry if I am ignorant on this but would "Brand" be better than
>> >> "manufacturer"? I am guessing you already went through this with
>> >> your business guys and was just hoping to learn why the still expect
>> >> manufacturer.
>> >
>> > I'd better let a marketing person explain it, but as I understand it,
>> > a brand is a marketing device and is not the same as the company.
>> >
>> > Wikipedia describes brands as: "A brand is a collection of symbols,
>> > experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a
>> > person or any other artefact or entity."  So for instance, the Coca
>> > Cola brand involves red and white colours, the swoopy logo, the phrase
>> > "Enjoy Coca Cola", and so on.
>> >
>> > See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand and
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_(business)
>> >  for example.
>> >
>> > K.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Kirrily Robert
>> > Freebase Community Director
>> > kirrily at metaweb.com
>> > http://freebase.com/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Data-modeling mailing list
>> > Data-modeling at freebase.com
>> > http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Data-modeling mailing list
>> Data-modeling at freebase.com
>> http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Data-modeling mailing list
> Data-modeling at freebase.com
> http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Data-modeling mailing list
> Data-modeling at freebase.com
> http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.freebase.com/pipermail/data-modeling/attachments/20081223/c14a70a4/attachment-0001.htm 