The Great Ashley Madison (re)Branding Bluff
Even the media thinks they are ‘rebranding’? You’ve got to be kidding me.
Ashley Madison’s CEO Rob Segal recently told reporters that the company was going to be “re-positioned”, and “re-branded”.
And the media (WSJ, NYT,…) bought it. Unbelievable.
They don’t realise that Ashley Madison is actually strengthening it’s brand.
The company has NOT moved away from infidelity AT ALL.
It has picked fancier words — like “discreet relationships of all kinds…” But it has remained the very same company, with the very same values, and the very same brand.
Wait… Does the CEO and the media even understand what the word “brand” means?
Techcrunch reported that Segal said “we also found that 45 percent of our users were single and we didn’t think the [previous] brand reflected that.”
To be clear — the CEO discovered that 45% of his users were single, and (quite evidently) looking to start a relationship with a married person…
… And EUREKA!
He thought this was a dramatically different context - from having married individuals start affairs with other married individuals.
The Financial Post reported that Ashley Madison’s new slogan is “Find your moment,” which Segal said is meant “to reflect the fact that people are using the site for more than cheating on their spouses.”
“for more than cheating on their spouses.”
— How is that “re-branding” or, much less, “re-positioning”?
I call it brand reinforcement, and brand extension.
Don’t believe me? The Star in Toronto asked Segal how he would “rehabilitate the most notorious dating website on the Internet”.
His answer? “Less adultery, more women…”
I’ll pile on an additional critique. This is a laughable shallow answer for a company that claims it’s about building relationships.
Media headlines cannot possibly get more ironic…
Engadget reports that “the company has launched an ad campaign to restore some faith in its adultery-focused social network.”
And I’ll leave the most ridiculous quote for the very end…
“As leaders it’s our job to bring values to the organization such as trust, transparency and integrity, that really starts to reshape the internal culture” said company president James Millership.
Read every. single. word. in that last quote.
And try not to laugh.
