Do ‘iDroid’ Searches Show Droid Commercial Backfire?

Monday, October 19th, 2009 By

Consumers seeking ‘iDroid’

How long will we have to wait for the Droid?

How long will we have to wait for the Droid?

Verizon has made no bones about it: The Droid is its answer to the iPhone, and the company is doing everything it can to point out the superiority of its product, most notably in the Droid commercial that recently came out.

However, this Droid commercial has created a strange phenomenon. The commercial features mostly black text on a white background. The phrases, which change every few seconds, all beginning with “iDon’t.” For example, one says “iDon’t run widgets.” The end of the commercial says “Everything iDon’t … Droid does.”

However, it seems that Verizon’s Droid commercial might be backfiring in a way, as there have been millions of Google searches today for “iDroid.”

Do Droid commercials cause brand confusion?

So clearly Verizon has achieved its goal of linking the Droid to the iPhone, but it appears possible that consumers believe these products are related, not in competition. Would a loan company want to be so closely associated with its competition? I suppose that depends.

Because iPhone is already such a well established and popular brand, letting consumers think that there is such a thing as an “iDroid” might be a good thing for Verizon’s sales. However, it is clear from the Droid commercial that Verizon wants people to differentiate between the Droid and the iPhone. However, making an advertisement with such a specific target appears to be having the opposite effect.

Does Droid commercial convince consumers?

From the Droid commercial, consumers can infer that the Droid runs widgets, allows open development, takes pictures at night, has interchangeable batteries and has a real keyboard. However, that is all the information you get.

Even the Verizon web site doesn’t say when this Droid will come into existence. There are no photos of what the Droid will look like, either, which I believe contributes to the “iDroid” confusion. The only images consumers have that represent the Droid is a text pattern similar to the competition’s naming scheme.

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This post has 4 comments

  1. Kevin says:

    I think the author of this Article made the wrong assumption. There is a project going on that aims to dualboot iPhone os and android os on the iPhone 2g and 3g. This project has been named idroid. Lol it started gaining popularity around the same time as those commercials. I myself was searching for information about the project on my iPhone when I came across this article.

  2. Andrew says:

    Verizon does have a release date up which is November 6th, and they do have some pictures up, just go to the Droid page on Verizon's website.

  3. ron says:

    I think this just confirms that consumers are idiots and should stick with their trendy iphones, leaving those of us who understand cutting edge technology in peach to enjoy our tech toys.

  4. Franrose says:

    No clue yet on what the new Verizon Droid phone will look like. One site claimed to have the official photos, but the URL doesn't even work anymore. Weird. Nonetheless, can't wait to actually see what it looks like so I can put it on my "Things to Get but Never Will" list.

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