As in my previous articles, each word is based on my own readings and interpretations of the Byteball white paper, personal experiences and parallel sources. So, the Byteball team or other references shouldn't be perceived as responsible for my inaccurate understanding or my potentially wrong assertions. Obviously, this article is not an investment advice but an attempt to analyze the Byteball branding and marketing strategy through a classical knowledge prism.
Prologue
First, I have no lessons to give to the Byteball team in terms of branding, marketing or communication strategy. I'm not in their shoes and I can only imagine how big is the pressure on their Titans shoulders. As everyone, I have my own opinion on the subject but I have also my own professional experience from an old position where I had to interact with multiple experts. Obviously, this conventional analysis is far to be exhaustive and could be far more dense but I have to keep it reasonable. I'd like to add that I don't consider myself as an expert on the matter independently of my past experience. If you're not interested about boring rules and my personal opinions, I invite you to jump directly to the unconventional analysis which you'll find as reference at the end of this article.
So, let me summarize what I judge relevant in terms of branding, marketing and communication strategy.
Brand
A good brand has to be meaningful, unique and easy to remember.
By meaningful, I mean that a brand has to be representative of the company or its technology. One of the Byteball USPs (Unique selling point/proposition) is the transaction fees predictability. When a user posts 1 byte in the Byteball distributed database, he has to pay 1 byte of fees. In my opinion, the term byte is appropriate due to this Byteball USP. Even if the term ball can have several meanings in English, this word is directly related to a key element of the Byteball technology. Each time a posted unit becomes stable, a ball structure is generated. This ball structure is used by users who don't have the full Byteball database to generate a hash tree (kind of tall Merkle tree) to verify if a unit is serial. So, I think that the Byteball brand is meaningful when we understand the technology and how it works in backstage.
By unique, I mean that confusion with another brand isn't allowed. It's true that there are two cryptocurrency competitors which use the term byte in their brand. But the confusion isn't possible due to the adjunctive term ball. In plus, technologies differ radically because Byteball uses a specific DAG model when its competitors are old blockchain models without innovation. So, Byteball is a very unique brand and confusion with a competitor isn't possible.
By easy to remember, I mean that a brand has to be easy to write, easy to spell and has to stay immediately in people mind. The Byteball brand has only 8 letters and two syllables (/baɪt/ and /ˈbɔːl/) which allows anyone to memorize it easily. In plus, the possible confusion between the term byte and the term bite allows smutty puns. Even if some people could dislike this kind of jokes, it's a good way to keep the Byteball brand in people minds because sex is THE ultimate source of life and pleasure for humankind. For all these reasons, I consider that the Byteball brand will remain etched for long in public minds.
Logo
A good logo has to be simple to be easily recognized by the public.
Well, it's hard to be purest and simpler than the Byteball logo : a simple white circle inside a dark square. This circle-square conjunction is one of the simplest logo of all times and it is a direct reference to a very old geometrical problem known as squaring the circle. The circle represents the unity, atoms and cells. The circle represents eyes, navel and body orifices. In collective consciousness, the circle is the Earth, the Sun, the Moon. The circle is everywhere in the Byteball white paper through directed acyclic graphs inclusively in the unit and the ball terminology or in the snowball metaphor. The dark square is obviously the invisible container which supports the circle but also secrets embedded in the Byteball technology and the hop into the unknown proposed by this new model. To conclude, everybody knows what is a circle and in plus it looks like a coin. In my opinion, the Byteball logo illustrates perfectly the Byteball motto : Simplicity is beauty
Colors
As with the brand, the colors choice has to be representative of the company or its technology.
If we consider the Byteball brand, the logo, the specific DAG model and the Byteball wallet itself, thecolors choice has to illustrate the simplicity, the astonishing innovation spirit of humankind and the hop into the unknown. Usually, experts recommend companies to limit their choice to three colors. And it's the case with the Byteball brand, logo, website and wallet.
- The white means the purity, inspires the serenity and it's a direct reference to the Sun/Moon light.
- The black means the unknown, inspires the fear and it's a direct reference to the dark cave of immemorial times.
- The blue means the peace, inspires the freshness and it's a direct reference to the infinite sky.
Obviously, little variations of this set of colors are tolerated to ease the reading in different mediums like the website, the wallet and other communication mediums.
Website
There are a lot to say about websites nevertheless I will restrict myself here because it could be very unfair to criticize the Byteball website. Indeed, a good website is not one full time position but several time positions.
In my humble opinion, the Byteball website respects strictly experts recommendations and branding colors even if there are some visual imperfections. But when we know that all the website is done with pure HTML,CSS and JS without a CMS behind, experts understand easily why shit happens sometime. By the way, I precise I didn't take the time to verify the W3C compatibility.
For security purposes, Anton Churyumov is the only one to work on it based on what I had read on the Byteball Reddit. So, he is everywhere (Byteball platform developments, conferences, website, BitcoinTalk thread and Reddit) and some people ask him to directly interact with them.
The endless unique page could be a bit boring but the menu is always visible and allows the users to explore the page easily. And the website is available in several languages.
Obviously, it can be improved for instance with a menu link to tutorials and documentation. Several pages instead of a unique one could ease the navigation. The Byteball team is working with Anton Churyumov on these imperfections based on what I read on the Byteball Reddit.
So, wait and see.
Wallet
I will not speak about the wallet because most of the people agree that is a model of ergonomic and elegance. Even the most IT allergic people I met understand immediately how works the Byteball wallet. Improvements are yet possible and I think they will come.
For instance, as improvement, I hope a way to remove/hide some dead bots (i.e. old ICOs) and a way to create any assets directly from the wallet without external platform.
Marketing strategy
A good marketing strategy has to aim to settle on the long term a company product on a specific market sector and to reach a public target. It has to soak up deeply its public mind and to answer to its needs.
In my opinion, the Byteball product is the Byteball platform and its different assets like bytes, blackbytes and smart contracts functionalities. Its main public target has to be the largest community possible as stated by terms mass/wide adoption. The second most important group is represented by industrial, financial and retail sectors as stated by the terms real world adoption. The third one is speculators and crypto-whales but this one is a very small group of people and has been used as a kick starter.
One of the Byteball greatest marketing arguments is the notion of free money falling from the sky like a divine benediction. From first hour users to the last ones, this notion is astonishing and allows Byteball to be fairest and most democratic cryptocurrency in the market.
The Byteball team deployed many marketing strategy to ensure the fairness Byteball bytes distribution and to gain public recognition.
One of these strategies was the full moon airdrops. It was pretty smart because it was a direct reference to the Byteball logo and in the Greek mythology the Moon is related to the birth. This method attracted many Bitcoin holders - like whales, crypto project managers and lunatic greedy speculators - and curious people happy to get few free bytes and blackbytes just by holding bytes in their Byteball wallet. In plus, the Moon has many symbolic meanings which I will not mention here except the one above. Unfortunately, this distribution method finished by concentrate most of the bytes in the hands of few. Worst, most of the crypto-whales and speculators sold their bytes after each full moon distribution. That's why the Byteball team decided to stop this distribution method.
A larger distribution method was proposed to the Steam community and it's still running. When a Steem user has enough reputation, he can attest his Steem identity with the Byteball wallet and receive some free bytes. In plus, Steem users can sponsor new users, and then they receive a reward. This method is pretty smart because it has attracted many new users to the Byteball platform and the Steem community is pretty efficient in terms of communication. The method evolved a bit through time to resist against some bad behaviors but it's, in my opinion, a nice success.
The last distribution method appeared recently and took the form of smart vouchers. With smart vouchers, Byteball holders can sponsor other people and both parties receive 12$US of free bytes. The sponsor receives 12 $US + 8 $US in bytes directly in his smart vouchers account and the sponsored user receives 12 $US in bytes which are locked for 12 months within a smart contracts. We can't yet presume about the success of this method but it seems to be impressive at first look.
Obviously, Byteball has other distribution channels like textcoins which are distributed drop by drop through message applications and on social networks. There is also the email attestation which allow users to receive 10 $US in bytes.
In my opinion, one of the biggest Byteball strength in terms of marketing is its capacity to innovate quickly and to experiment new distribution models to reach the biggest community possible through several channels.
For instance, the Byteball's World Computing Grid which allows users to share their power computing for rewards to help scientific community is a brilliant tool. Byteball Use-a-thons are also very useful to generate innovation and new interesting use cases. And the Bosch cooperation will certainly reserve us impressive surprises with BIoT (Byteball Internet of Things).
Unfortunately, financial institutions and its representatives seem to be a bit forgot on the way. The impossibility to generate assets, private or not, with or without fixed denominations directly from the Byteball wallet is pity. Worst, even through the dedicated website, the possibilities are restricted to public assets. Maybe it's calculated and the Byteball team has its own agenda. I can't honestly judge the strategy for this target group now. But I'm confident that things will evolve through time. For instance, the Byteball ICO platform website will be launch soon.
The communication about retail merchants is very poor. We have basically zero information since the program dedicated to merchants started. This target is maybe keep for later due to the Byteball price instability due to bad behaviors of speculator and investors. But like with the financial institutions, I can't honestly judge about the situation.
In my opinion, third group represented by whales, speculators and investors is irrelevant and, in fact, very negative for the Byteball brand because they are greedy, selfish and unproductive. Even if they could be useful to the Byteball brand due to their communication power, they use it only to manipulate their community and dump their bags on their followers. I consider them as a negative force for Byteball and they should be ignored.
To conclude, I'd like to say that I consider the Byteball marketing strategy as efficient and I'm pretty sure it will be improved in a close future.
Communication strategy
A good communication has to maximize communications mediums to reach the biggest public possible and has, subsequently, to be adapted. Obviously, in information era, these mediums are focused on Internet public.
I'm a follower of the Byteball twitter account, a Byteball BitcoinTalk thread reader and more recently a Reddit one. I'm a bit allergic to Slack and I don't use Facebook, so I cannot say a word about these mediums. But I have read good comments about the Byteball Slack community in the Byteball BitcoinTalk thread.
I think I saw all advertises even if some of them could have escape to me. Each one is very simple, direct and meaningful. And the Byteball colors code is always there : white, black and blue.
Byteball communication is greatly forwarded through the Byteball Twitter and the Byteball Reddit account. In plus, the most relevant articles are relayed and supported by all Byteball officials and by the community. Medium and Steem tutorials are great tools to assist users and to presents new Byteball platform features. Unfortunately, they are a bit difficult to find through the Byteball website. A user a bit motivated will find them but this point should be greatly improved. I read on the Byteball Reddit that the team wants to improve this aspect, and I am sure they will do the job.
The Byteball communication team is growing slowly but surely and are gaining more experience daily. They try to improve the communication and the Elena Tairova's interviews are a great tool to present the team to public. I hope the concept will be extended to events where they are, to partners and even to Byteball technical aspects.
But globally, I think that the Byteball communication team is doing a great job with very little means.
Conclusion
Eventually, I'd like to say that I'm pretty satisfied with the Byteball branding, marketing and communication strategy even if it's always possible to improve what exists right now. In my opinion, it's meaningful, efficient and punchy. Anton Churyumov and all the Byteball team have done an impressive work with few means. As many Byteball holders, I was disappointed by the Byteball rebranding announcement. Nevertheless, I will accept it and I will continue to support the Byteball platform whatever will come because the only thing that is constant is change.
To conclude and to prepare you psychologically for the next article and how Byteball brand is predestined, I will quote the Geneva's motto :
Post tenebras lux
Byteball white paper : https://byteball.org/Byteball.pdf
Byteball website : https://byteball.org
Unus Mundus article : https://steemit.com/byteball/@henric/byteball-unus-mundus
Post-scriptum
You want to get some Byteball bytes without risk to explore the platform potential ?
Prepare your ID card and download the Byteball wallet on your Android or IOS device.
Open the Byteball wallet & press the chat button then the bot store tab and add the Real Name Attestation Bot.
Follow the bot instructions and when it will ask you to pay to validate your identity with Jumio, type this smart voucher code :
X7H7J6FCNLBZK
If everything goes fine, you'll will receive 12$US in bytes locked in a smartcontract for 12 months
Read more about Byteball smart vouchers : https://medium.com/byteball/introducing-smart-vouchers-a-new-way-to-earn-referral-rewards-by-sending-bytes-to-new-users-38972ec645a7