Jump the Shark: 4 reasons why I rebranded my pride and joy
This is a quick post in which I’ll try to relay my reasoning as to why I rebranded my password manager app.
Reason 1: The name wasn't obvious enough
Many of you who are regular readers of this blog would be aware that I have developed an anti - cloud privacy focused password manager, some of you may have even followed my journey from "how I stopped reusing my passwords and how you can too". After thinking on it for a long time the name I came up with for this password manager was Passta. The name Passta was supposed to be a clever anagram of “password storage assistant” but sadly this never caught on. That’s reason 1 why I went through with the rebranding - FYI the name is now “PassVult” and you can find it here on iOS, there’s also a lite version which you can get here.
Reason 2: The name was stolen
Reason number two for rebranding the app is between blogging about the app and actually releasing it a German language Passta password manager popped up on the App Store. It was extremely annoying regardless if it was a coincidence or deliberate act. It would be good to say this is the first time this has happened but it hasn't I have also seen numerous popular posts I put large amounts of effort and research into on here be blatantly plagiarised and copied word for word.
Reason number 3: Logo design wasn't intuitive
Reason number 3 which helped with my rebranding efforts was that the logo didn’t really correlate to what the app did. Green P on dark grey background doesn’t really scream security app so now I have moved to a more trustworthy blue with white asterix and cursor line (like when you start typing in a password) that should be much better at leaving subtle queues.
Reason number 4: my message was lost on my potential customers
Reason number 4, the fact that this was a privacy focused password manager wasn’t really being conveyed effectively I have added a few call outs to this now - hopefully it’s a bit more obvious. When I built this app it’s specifically because I didn’t trust lastpass or 1password to be able to adequately protect my data. Numerous times since starting development and releasing the app this holds true. I’m proud at least that I have built something that lets you keep control of your password data forever even if nothing else comes out of this.
What’s next?
Whats next you might ask? Work has finally started on the android version, I’m confident the app is now in a solid place and that I can port it to android. Stay tuned for updates here.
Also next is the continuous slog of marketing, marketing and more marketing. I didn't really have any experience in this space so I stared looking into app marketing and most importantly how to effectively market apps, there is so much I wasn't aware of its time to start learning and using some of these strategies to my advantage.
Improving the experience and adding more features. That last sentence should hopefully speak for itself, incase it doesn't it means the app will get better with every release.
