What is happening to the Documentum brand?

Is the Documentum brand dying? After their acquisition of Documentum, EMC pretty much left the brand and organization alone. Everything became EMC Documentum and a new logo, but EMC allowed the Documentum brand to grow and flourish. However, slowly over time the Documentum brand is being pushed aside. First, the executive team disappeared, then portions of the web site was subsumed into the EMC web site.

Now however, try going to the Documentum web site. You are now redirected to the EMC software site and there is practically no mention of any other brand on this site other than EMC. There are generic market categories of Enterprise Content Management, Recovery Management, and "Information Infrastructure Software". Click two levels down to http://software.emc.com/products/content_management/content_management.htm and you can finally see reference to Documentum.

Everything I learned about branding, I learned from Al Ries's books and former Documentum CEO Jeff Miller. Having had the great privilege to choose the Documentum from a list of four from an agency that Xerox hired, I feel we got very lucky to have chosen a name that has worn well. But EMC is now breaking a lot of Ries's "22 Immutable Laws of Branding". Ries says that brands are owned by the customer, not the company. It is up to the company to protect and nuture that brand. The brand equity that has been built up over 15 years is being shelved in some political turf fight. Ries also says you concentrate a brand, not extend it. They are killing off one strong brand and severely weakening another, the EMC brand, through over-extension. The Documentum name is associated with content management in the customer's brain, not the hardware manufacturer EMC.

Time will tell, but indications are that people who would have been attracted to the Documentum or Legato brands are now leaving. Having interviewed many people from Documentum's competitors, they are saying that they are seeing Documentum less and less. Could this be an indication of brand disappearance in marketing. Are the EMC guys even aware of what is happening?

Comments

[vinay kumar]

brand architecture

[Jeremy Williams]

I have implemented Documentum solutions for years and know what you mean by this blog. I am continuing to keep an open mind with respect to what EMC are doing, but you can't help but get emotive about them taking over the Documentum brand. I hate to think how the various engineering team members feel about the changes.

I was even more horrified to discover they had replaced the Customer Net support web site with their own 'PowerLink' site, but I have to say they have made a big enhancement to finding information. So for the first time I have seen an advantage in EMC's take over.

I have to say I am using Alfresco where I can and actively following your developments, which I am very grateful for. You keep me on my toe's as a system's implementer.

Thanks.

[John Newton]

Under Lou Gerstner, IBM made a successful transition of their brand from hardware to services. This may be what EMC is trying to do, but that focus is not as clear.

I believe that they would be better served by preserving their original core software brands and keep the EMC brand focused on storage hardware.

[James]

Should EMC do a branding approach similar to BEA and their distinction between Weblogic and Aqualogic? or is the model of IBM who also sells hardware much better?