XeroBank: A tragic comedy of browser branding
I noticed an odd press release today…
New York, NY (PRWEB) August 3, 2007 — XeroBank, formerly known as Torrify, recently announced its rebranding and the release of its updated anonymous web browser, xB Browser™, formerly known as Torpark.
Yikes! At least Prince was formerly known as… Prince.
Torrify/Torpark/xBBrowser/XeroBank/TorNetwork makes a great branding case study! Ok so they’re not Seth Godin! I tried the free demo of their anonymous browser. It’s a modified Firefox that promises secure surfing.
The browser, which is preconfigured and requires no technical knowledge, bypasses firewalls and website censorship, and protects against a common form of Internet surveillance known as traffic analysis.
That’s a great promise but it just doesn’t deliver. It’s a geek product. When I finally got the thing working it didn’t give me access to blocked sites, nor did it give me access to ANY sites: a bunch of proxy connection issues. There’s a control called “Tor enabled” that didn’t seem to do much (I thought you guys rebranded from the Tor stuff???) I gave up – long before my 3 day free trial expires.
Two morals in this story: Don’t promise ease-of-use when you’re not delivering it. Treat your brand with respect or risk confusing your customers.
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