Brand
Brand is an important aspect of market share and client relations in modern commerce. It is the imprint of production, which communicates a story of origins and identity in a dense multi-media package. It is often treated as a commodity in itself.
Peer production within a value network may take a different approach. The aim is to efficiently provide context for decisions around trust and collaboration. The 'customer' is seen as an active participant in the brand story and community. This gives rise to challenging considerations for boundary conditions of brand development and use.
Open Value Networks are instantiations of Commons-based peer production. Their products arise within the commons, which means that the knowledge embedded in them is widely shared. Open Value Networks do not seek market advantage by the control of knowledge, like classical corporations do. They benefit from a higher innovation rate and a shorter time to market that is enabled by open innovation and distributed production. If the open value network succeeds in establishing this basic economic advantage, it may then seek to differentiate from other market players via brand development.
Branding has two important dimensions: branding the network--the field of production--and branding individual products.
Branding the open value network
It is important to establish a relation of trust between the consumer and the producer. In the case of peer production via open value network, brand has many shifting dimensions. However, the network is Due to transparency, it is possible for the client or end user to view the entire production record of an item, and infer much more detail about a particular product.
The overarching elements of "brand" for a network may be viewed by:
- What is produced - what types of value are created by the network; which reveals how is the network valued by the ecosystem
- How does it function - what patterns of production and distribution are in play, or how do participants collaborate and exchange
- Why is it there - what motivates contributors to apply and express themselves, or how is a coherent story demonstrated in action"
Branding products
Individual products, projects and ventures within the OVN can adopt their own distinguishing marks and supportive content. In order to carry the brand of the Network, it may make sense to establish a "quality assurance" board which ensures that deliverables meet minimum basic standards and characteristics of the Network.
Branding for members of the open value network
The OVN is an association of individuals, coordinating and collaborating to create and distribute value through a p2p platform, and sharing benefits by using a contribution accounting system. Active contributors have a very high degree of autonomy. Some contributors might prefer to have their own brand associated with the brand of the network and of the product they've contributed to, and this is entirely possible.
State of the art (Draft)
Actual branding components Extracted from SENSORICA's doc
- Product name
- Productmotto/slogan
- Productlogotype (wordmark)
- Productlogo (image)
- Productcolors
- Exchange firm name
- Exchange firm logotype (wordmap)
- Exchange firm logo (image)
- Exchange firm colors
- Value Network name
- Value Network motto/slogan
- Value Network logotype (wordmark)
- Value Network logo (image/icon)
- Value Network colors
Challenges
The open value network has decentralized and distributed communication channels. In order for the brand to be well-formulated and well-communicated the network needs to form a cluster of members that nurture and police the brand. The should belong to a trustee, which acts as the recipient for all shared resources.
Questions arise around who can speak or act on behalf of the network in a way that reflects on the whole, such as in the media. Some of the ways to address this include specific guidelines in the membership agreement, formal governance structures and membranes for public broadcast, and via reputation system which provides tight feedback based on actions of members. Another option is to carefully avoid the presentation of an individual voice speaking for the collective altogether, using only content which has been formally adopted as representative of the whole.