This is just a general comment meant to be helpful, not critical, in the spirit of “simplicity is always better than complexity”.
I notice that the branding of the new product appears to have taken on two different identities: Online and Platinum. For example, most references on this site are to “Pralana Online” yet when I go to the Members page to opt for the upgrade from Gold I am shown that I am purchasing “Pralana Platinum”. For those of us who are existing customers and who have been anxiously awaiting the new version for months, we know exactly what we are buying. But for a new customer this could lead to unnecessary confusion and uncertainty.
I personally feel that “Pralana Platinum” is far superior branding and fits beautifully in the Bronze > Gold > Platinum progression. To my ears, “Pralana Online” harkens back to 1995 or so, when software came on CDs and before the whole universe shifted online. Today it strikes me as an anachronistic term and badly outdated. Of course it’s “online”.
Just an opinion! I am an ardent supporter of Pralana and only want to see you prosper. Congratulations on turning the last corner on a long and undoubtedly arduous journey to get to this wide-release date!
It is confusing. And I'll add that I can't find anywhere on the site a description of the differences between online and online pro.
@ilovemybeagles Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, David. You've made some great points and we'll definitely give them serious consideration!
Stuart
David, you make good points and we will give this some consideration. Background:
- The "Online" reference is obviously to distinguish this product from the Excel "off-line" version. This importance of this distinction may fade over time as we get more users who never had the Excel version.
- The url is of course "pralana.online" (pralana.com is not available).
- The reason it was not branded "Pralana Platinum" is because 'platinum' refers the the subscription level of which there are currently 2 and their may be more in the future. On the other hand, companies routinely brand individual products.
Perhaps the logo on the site should refer the user's current subscription level (e.g. "Pralana Platinum") and all other textual references on the site should just say "Pralana" (Example: "You may provide this code to clients who have their own Pralana Online subscription."). These changes would be easy to implement.
@smatthews51 and @cstone, thank you both for your receptive responses and consideration. Where else can a customer receive such personalized interaction?
After reading your response, Mr. Stone, I reflected a little more deeply how I might approach this if Pralana were my own product and I was tasked with marketing it for maximum clarity. For the record, I am most definitely no marketing guru (although, as a recovering software engineer, I did actually get to develop and name three of my company's enterprise systems!).
As you noted in your first bullet, "Online" is an obvious distinction from the current "offline" Excel version. I can certainly see why you would select this name and might have even chosen it myself. But consider... If my hunch is correct, Pralana subscriptions are on the verge of skyrocketing now that your new offering no longer has the Excel dependency. (I would buy Pralana Consulting's IPO on the spot!) I would venture that many, if not most, of your current customers are comfortable in Excel and love Bronze/Gold for that very reason. I know I do. But Excel aficionados are of course a sliver of the general population. That has almost surely been holding back many who are intimidated by Bronze/Gold or who just do not want to spend the extra dollars licensing Excel. This leads me to believe that people will flock to the "Online" version, dwarfing "Gold" customers in short order, making "Online" a distinction with no meaning. In time, "Pralana Online" could seem as curious a relic as America Online does to us today.
I personally would want to future-proof my flagship product's identity and not tie it to a term that has value only to your existing customer base. No distinction is needed for new customers and additionally, in my opinion, "Online" saddles the brand with the whiff of yesteryear. I think I would ditch it. Once the general public learns of the superior value proposition and competitive pricing of Pralana "online" compared to currently-available "online" alternatives, my feeling is that you'll want to be known just as "Pralana" (as you suggested). Contrary to my earlier musings, I think I might just let the Bronze > Gold (> Platinum) product family die on the vine with Gold. Naming a subscription level "Platinum" intermixes with the "Bronze"/"Gold" product name and does seem confusing, to me at least. Maybe discontinue future use of the "metals" completely and name your subscriptions something entirely disassociated from the product, such as "Standalone or Individual or Single", "Advisor or Tenant or Multi", "{future subscription level}". Let "Bronze"/"Gold" become a legacy naming scheme and move forward with "Pralana" the product and then the separate Individual/Advisor/??? subscription tiers.
Finally, my personal opinion (like all of this) is that the "Platinum Pro" moniker leads me to believe there is something inherently superior to that subscription tier vs. the non-"Pro" one. The non-Pro tier carries a connotation of "less than" or "basic" when in actuality both tiers are identical (I think), save the number of plans they support. I usually want to buy the best that I can afford, not something "less than" or lacking in features. I would naturally be attracted to Pro and be searching for a comparison chart to see all the extra goodies I'd be getting with the superdooper Pro. But Pro is not superdooper at all. Kind of confusing and misleading. I would consider something along the lines of "Individual" vs "Advisor" - or "Standalone" vs "Tenant" - or the like (see Microsoft and others for their subscription plan nomenclature) and ditch "Pro" as well. Hey, why not?... I'm on a roll! ????
If you've read this far, thank you for your indulgence and patience. Truly, this is all meant as constructive and just brainstorming from a kindred developer soul. Feel free, of course, to disregard the whole lot in its entirety or pick & choose from this anything you deem of value, no further comment necessary. I'm going to be a happy customer all the same. And thank you both again for your attentiveness and availability to your customers.
Stuart and I had a zoom meeting today and discussed your post and our branding/naming. You latest post made additional good points that we need to consider. I thank you for taking the time to share your perspective and ideas on this with us.
The 'Pro' version does, for now, contain the same plan/scenario features. It adds advisor-specific features for creating and managing client plans and may someday offer custom co-branding. We may also allow expanded core capabilities in the advisor version. So, as of now, our individual users get all the planning features available to our professional clients!
Stand by...some changes will be forthcoming. We want to be thoughtful about this and get it right the first (ok, second) time and not have to re-do again next year.
Charlie
@cstone I appreciate that you received my comments graciously in the spirit they were intended. I really do have a deep admiration for yours and Stuart's achievement in producing such an impressive product and replatforming it from Excel in such a relatively short time. I am rooting for your every success. I also appreciate that you guys know of your future plans for Pralana, unbeknownst to me, that you have to figure into your naming/subscription tier/product feature/etc. considerations. You owe me nothing, but I am happy if you find any redeeming value whatsoever from my feedback.
And I'm also glad to know that we simple folk are getting all the same features as your professional bigs, at least for now. I don't look forward to that day when the Individual/Advisor comparison chart shows me all the wonderful goodies I am missing! ????
