Back in February, I assisted a research firm putting together a Cisco report. While their analysis isn’t specific to Cisco’s Pure Digital acquisition and casual video gadgetry, it was an obvious topic of discussion. And I was far more bearish in my outlook than the project lead.
Cisco has an amazing opportunity to capitalize on the Flip brand but, given their primary focus on the enterprise and inability to move Linksys beyond one-of-many home networking commodity brands (despite an entire line of networked media devices that no one knows exist), I’m not sure they can. Overly complex devices of dubious value (like the Flip Share) and devices priced beyond the reach of their target market that bring nothing new to the table (like the just released Flip Slide) emphasize my point/concern.
My advice: Pull a marketing team together that understands branding, PR, and the retail market. Drop “Cisco” and “Linksys” from anything non-networking, including the aforementioned music streamers, and label them Flip. Simplify the experience and keep pricing under control. Isn’t that what made Flip videocams a hit?