Brands. "What comes to mind when you hear 'EMC?'"

I like this quote on Brands,

"Brand identity either leads or lags reality."

 

With that in mind, I always love to hear what people most associate with my bread-and-butter brand.

A lot of people have long equated EMC with storage. This is goodness! We're the category leader in this IT space. We're also a lot more than this today. In the following fun video clip, you will hear storage a few times as well as some other long-standing and cherished attributes such as "Reliability, Quality, Service, Excellent" and, what the heck, "Money!"

There are many new attributes, as well, in these one-word associations. Attributes which speak volumes to the newer dimensions of EMC and our value to the market.  It is exciting to see these being heard and appreciated to this degree!  I also find it awesome as a brand-centric person that the "new" list is even longer than the "enduring" list. The speed of such a brand identity additions is remarkable.

There is a big word missing though, can you catch it? It might just be that with this audience it is assumed -- though I suspect it really means EMC has some brand work to do!

Here's what was said at EMCWorld this week in this up-beat, man-on-the-street type of vid.

 

The words I captured:

Infrastructure

Unified Storage

Virtualization

Security

DR (disaster recovery)

Celera

Reliable

Storage

Documentum

Money!

Services

Back Ups

Quality

Enterprise Suite

Global Player

My Goodness!

Storage Innovation

Excellent

Reliable Player

 

----------------- Talk Back ----------------

What word is missing?! 

Hint: While a few major product names are missing, I'm looking to a word that speaks to a higher, and increasingly vital level of brand association.

My answer will come in a future post.

How is your brand doing?  Have you done this lately? We could all likely use a touch-base, and a tune up on our bread-and-butter brands ... and well as our own enduring brand: ourselves.