Yesterday, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division announced that the “Live” brand—Microsoft’s flavor of search and online services—could be replaced.  Given the many millions that have been invested by Microsoft, as well as the numerous iterations of “me to” services that have been added to their online offerings over the years, this is a pretty stunning admission. The failure of Live to really catch on and represent a credible threat to Google’s dominance has been cast as a branding problem, but I think there’s a real user experience issue that lives just below the surface. I also believe that without addressing this, any rebranding effort is unlikely to make a real difference.

Consider the development arc of Google as a brand. From the very beginning, that empty field centered on a nearly blank page made it crystal clear what Google was about—search. The fact that Google, as a word, has become synonymous with search in the public’s mind goes to show just how successful they have been. I think that you can attribute quite a lot of the brand’s success to the truly simple and intuitive user experience Google delivers.

Microsoft’s latest gambit to essentially bribe people to use Live search just underscores how much they have to catch up. And I think a part of the problem is the way Microsoft always seems to want more from the user if they want to play with the toys.

Visit windowslive.com, and one thing is clear immediately, you’re going to have to give up a bunch of personal information and allow Microsoft to install a whole bunch of stuff on your computer. Pretty strong contrast with the elegant simplicity and immediate gratification of the Google search field.

I’m confident that Microsoft will develop a successful strategy, which is a good thing. Google needs a credible competitor to keep it sharp, and we all benefit when really smart people compete to come up with innovative new services and products. When they get it right, you’ll know because they won’t have to be paying people to play.

Weber Grills has an army of loyal outdoor chefs that are still cooking on their old charcoal kettles and wouldn’t think of buying another brand when it comes time for a new grill. While this may seem like a situation any company would be happy to be in, brands with a diehard user base like Weber are constantly challenged to innovate while not diluting their brand with their existing customer base.

To create brand loyalty you must first and foremost build a product that lives up to expectations.

Weber has been building grills from day one that not only cook well, but are designed to last. You won’t see too many functioning 10+ year old CharBroil grills out there, but there are plenty of 20+ year old Weber kettle grills with owners proudly grilling away on them. Weber decided to mobilize their user base and take an indirect crack at their competition when they introduced the  Campaign to Promote Grill Decency. As a campaign member, you are delivered informative pamphlets, stickers, and other campaign materials designed to make sure “friends don’t let friends buy crappy grills”. Members register how many crappy grills they have been able to get converted into Weber’s online, and a worldwide competition is born. Marketing genius!

To sustain brand loyalty you must communicate with your customers and continue to deliver value.

When I registered my three Weber grills with the company I was enrolled as a member of Weber Nation for free. As a member, I am emailed a new recipe each week. The recipes were originally delivered in HTML email format with basic photos. Weber now includes videos of their recipes being prepared by Real Grilling’s Jamie Purviance in the emails. A complete, searchable archive of the recipes lives on the Weber Nation website and can be downloaded as podcasts or vodcasts. Now, I am not sure how many pit bosses would be caught getting recipes off an iPod, but that is industry leading innovation!