Success almost always
creates a type of brand shorthand to communicate quality and availability. Today, enterprises want to be known as 'the Uber of X,Y
or Z.' There was a time when they wanted to be the Apple, the Hertz, the GE, the IBM
, the Southwest Air
and even the McDonalds of various other services. Yes, those
were the days. Emphasis on 'were.'
But as the following article explains, there are characteristics unique to each of those companies - and many of them are intangible. Apple focused on design; GE became known for producing well-trained managers; Southwest Air started out by flying only one type of aircraft to only warm-weather cities, reducing the cost of maintenance and delay while hedging its fuel expenses; and McDonalds made most of its early profit not from burgers and fries, but from buying real estate ahead of the market and then selling or leasing it to franchisees.
For Uber, it turns out, the crucial market characteristics are immediacy, high purchase frequency and regular usage. That works for some demographics in some urban environments (and urbanization is a global 'uber-trend') but not necessarily in every one. Uber has become shorthand for spectacular growth and profit.
In addition to its market's defining drivers, its success is based on factors that it may not be able to control for long, never mind forever: weakened regulatory authority and an economy in which people with some assets but limited growth potential are desperate for extra income. It is still working to build trust.
None of which is to denigrate Uber's considerable success, but simply to remind us that as a general rule in business, there is
no shorthand. JL
Boris Wertz comments in Fortune:
The success of Uber has inspired hundreds of startups to call themselves the “Uber of X, Y, or Z.” The best marketplaces have high-purchase frequency and regular usage.