[Data-modeling] A proposal for consumer products

Tue Dec 23 20:17:08 UTC 2008

OK, how about this.  Four types:

* Company (or some company-like type, eg. Product manufacturer,  
intended as a co-type with company)
* Brand
* Product line
* Consumer Product

All four of those have properties for the other three.  Brand and  
Product Line have a phylogeny pattern which allows for "Includes" and  
"Included by".

Apple is a company.  It has a brand "iPhone", which is also a product  
line (done with co-typing the iPhone topic).  The iPhone 3G 8GB is a  
product whose brand and product line are iPhone.  As an example of the  
phylogeny pattern Apple's brand "iPod" includes a sub-brand "iPod  
Shuffle".

P&G is a company, which has a brands "Crest" and "Charmin".  It has  
product lines "Crest toothpaste", "Crest toothbrushes", etc.  "Crest  
Whitening Minty Fresh Toothpaste" (I made that name up) is a product  
in the Crest toothpaste line, with the Crest brand.

Adobe is a company that has a lot of products, but looking at http://www.adobe.com/products/ 
  I can't see much in the way of brands other than the Adobe brand  
itself.  But they do have product lines like "Creative Suite".

For very small companies or producers, you can ignore Product Line and  
Brand.  For instance, Joe Smith builds "Joe's worm farms" and sells  
them at his local farmers market.  There is no Product Line or Brand  
there, just a producer and a product.

Having links from all those four types to each other will introduce  
some denormalisation, but it seems to me like the only way to capture  
the various ways these things work in different industries.

K.

On Dec 23, 2008, at 11:39 AM, evening0star wrote:

>
> 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/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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-- 
Kirrily Robert
Freebase Community Director
kirrily at metaweb.com
http://freebase.com/

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