real words for real business

Brand architecture for WebEx

Most businesses would envy the problem faced by WebEx. The web-conferencing provider grew rapidly after its 1996 founding, with its product and service offerings proliferating. Shrewd acquisitions brought new markets to the mix. But all the lively expansion led to branding confusion. The company named and marketed fresh products and services on an ad hoc basis, without following a clear organizing structure.

In need of a strategy for naming, categorizing, and presenting its portfolio on its website, WebEx called in Catchword. We brought along our pruning shears and a fresh outside perspective.

We pinpointed the problems: Confusion among “products,” “services,” “applications,” and “solutions” led to bewildering navigation on the site. Outgrown, quirky, and inconsistent names clung to products they no longer described. And the site mainly targeted large enterprises even though WebEx was also focused on growing its small business market.

We recommended a tell-it-like-it-is clarity: settle on the term “solutions” and institute navigation by functional descriptions such as “web meetings” and “marketing and events.” Address small, medium, and large businesses separately on the site. Lose the fanciful names, so “Everdream Control Center” (huh?) became WebEx System Management, and “SMARTtech” became “Remote Access.”

With success in such plenty, clearly WebEx’s solutions are home runs. It was our pleasure to make that a little more obvious.

In 2007 WebEx was acquired by Cisco. Its simplified brand architecture fit nicely into Cisco’s highly descriptive naming structure.