Google in the House Mouse Pad:
"Its Gel filled wrist rest makes for more ergonomically correct mousing and the logo screams, "Yes I have a clue!"."
A brand that feels the need to self-proclaim its coolness, instead of just oozing it, is starting its way down the slope to Boring Corporate Status. Yeah, yeah, the whole mouse pad is meant to be post-bust ironic. Still, no ones scores with this line: "hi, I’m great in bed, let’s have sex!" It’s supposed to show in your body language or something.
Look at how 97% of the marketplace totally doesn’t buy Apple’s branding, a brand that goes at great lengths to pathetically tag itself hip and important (for instance, calling its DVD burner "the legendary Superdrive" when everybody else knows is as Pioneer’s DVD-A03/103 and successors.) Apple fans can write me and tell me I’m clueless, to which I’ll answer: branding that doesn’t translate into sales is useless, and it’s often the case when it’s not grounded in any tangible reality (e.g. "fast" and "Mac" next to each other.) It’s been long since Apple even tried to be credible outside its inner circle of fanatic customers. They’re still a cult brand, but only to the choir, and their preaching doesn’t recruit new buyers faster than they lose former customers.
And don’t even get me started on purchases motivated by an expected boost in social status. If anybody buys an Apple computer to impress the neighborhood, they’re stupid beyond hope of recovery (not that buying anything to claim one’s status is clever, it smells so much of personal insecurity.)
So back to Google, they’re starting to lose cult brand status now that they make it explicit. At least they still have a great product.