Parveen Kaler

Introversion Software considers themselves The Last of the Bedroom Programmers. They are company of 8 full-time employees based out of the UK. They have made the games Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon.

Victoria Arundel, their Marketing & PR person, did a talk about how Introversion goes about creating buzz about their company and their products. Introversion has a very small advertising budget, so they spend a lot of their attention creating a clear, coherent brand.

I’ve been spending the last few weeks thinking about and building a brand for my own, currently stealth, company. This talk was very pertinent for me.

How Can I Compete?

Victoria spoke about how Introversion competes with the monolithic, big-brand studios. They rely on procedurally generated content to create unique games. They pick topics that the big studios wouldn’t really touch. They also focus on audio and immersion rather than purely graphics to stylize their games.

Brand Leaders Versus Brand Challengers

The book Eating The Big Fish by Adam Morgan was specifically mentioned as a source of inspiration and information. Virgin and Apple were mentioned as good examples of brand challengers. Both companies have a very strong face attached to their image. Richard Branson and Steve Jobs make their companies more than just faceless corporations. This is very important for brand challengers.

The 1984 Apple Superbowl ad was also mentioned. However, it was mentioned in a context that I hadn’t really thought about in the past. Apple was originally the brand leader in personal computer industry until IBM (along with Microsoft) came along and ate their lunch. That Superbowl ad was the turning point where Apple transformed themselves from being the Brand Leader to the Brand Challenger.

To boil down the talk into one statement: Say who you are not just what you sell.