Laura Ries makes an excellent point about product positioning:

Instead of always thinking how to line extend, companies should think more about launching second brands. Many line extensions represent a missed opportunity. Toyota could have sold many expensive Toyotas, but they would have missed an opportunity to launch the Lexus brand which today dominates the expensive car category. Lexus is much more valuable than the sales that might have been generated by an expensive Toyota model.

One of the things I hear people say is this: "that's fine for consumer products, but in the B to B space, it's irrelevant". Well. For one thing, I addressed that nonsense here - regardless of the lies we tell ourselves, most of us are not selling to C level people. We are selling to influencers, who in turn use our products and get the C level people committed. Once that happens, you can lose the sale through incompetence at the salesman level - but you never get there in the first place if you don't reach the influencers.

That's why you need:

• Product level branding
• An expansive level of product information that is easily accessible (i.e., don't hide it behind "lead generation mousetraps")
• Some kind of "try and buy" program, although the way that works will vary, based on the type of product you are selling - although I'll note that Sun is doing "downloads" with hardware now.

What's a product dooming mistake? I agree with Laura: line extension in branding is a bad idea. If you're known for X, and you want to get into business Y, ask whether your X identity will help you sell Y. Typically, it won't.

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