what3words

This is brilliant. 

Ever wanted to meet someone - for example at an event - in the middle of a field? What3words has sliced the world (figuratively) into 57 trillion 3m x 3m parcels. Three words define each of these parcels. And if you want, you can buy a single word and tag it to your particular parcel. How brilliant is that? Here's how they describe their service:

Invaluable in the 75% of countries where poor addressing is rendering whole communities invisible, aid or maintenance agencies trying to map remote schools or fix solar panels. In developed countries couriers lose money by spending 28% of their time in the last mile & just a 1% improvement in the UK's addressing system would represents a saving of €25bn for the economy. 

These guys are really changing the way we navigate and are acknowledging that the current postal system and service is a. outdated b. inaccurate. So from now on, if you need to visit G.A Brand Design, you can find us at:

golf.football.jetted

Which is actually brilliantly useful, given we always have people getting lost trying to find our staircase entrance hidden as it is in the OneKL building.

So many new digital brands like what3words (founded by a school colleague incidentally) and for instance Uber, use technology to bring people closer together and provide a new, improved service that goes straight to a pressure-point or problem in people's lives. Often, you don't even realise how inadequate the previous service was (eg the postal service/Google maps) because you have lived with it and taken it for granted for many years. These start-up brands are essentially based on what they do, how they function. However, to be successful, they still all need a powerful idea or philosophy at their core - a thought or a point of view about how the world could be better with them.

The challenge for these brands is remaining relevant after the initial buzz of the launch (what3words recently appeared on CNN here http://cnn.it/ZcPMAt). How will what3words diversify and what other functions, features and products will it offer? 

From a branding perspective I would encourage them to consider their role beyond the 'core function' they currently provide. It is interesting to watch Google grappling with this 'brand identity' now - diversifying from their core search/AdWords function into technologies such as wearables (Google Glass) and home monitoring systems (Nest) and of course Uber itself. This is a long way from a search engine - but true to their brand ethos of "don't be evil"....from afar, it does seem like the company, in all its success, is struggling to define its next steps. Without a continual reappraisal and evolution, there is a danger, even for a giant brand like Google, that you lose relevance and diminish. In case you think this is totally mad, have a look at the failure of Google+ for instance - and the increasing movement of 'going dark' and removing your personal information from Google's all-seeing eye. The only thing that is permanent, in the world of brands, is change.