MSC
Registered: Feb 15, 2005
Total Posts: 11310
Country: United States
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Yeah, the branding thing is a personal preference. For me, I don't want my web hosting company branding my website with their name. IMHO, it is my site, not mine and theirs together--just mine. Obviously they do it for free advertising. And it does not seem to bother those that use that service.
And a little off topic, but "SmugMug"...what were they thinking with that name...do you want a "Smug-Mug?" I dunno, but what conjures in my mind when I hear that phrase is not pleasant and moderately obnoxious, I think 'smirk' when I hear that. Does anyone want to hang with someone sporting a "Smug Mug?" I def don't want that image to be any clients impression or thought that they may have when they are buying from me. Stupid on my part maybe, but impressions do count. YMMV
That however was not why I switched as stated before. But clearly SM has a following that is large. My guess is that they have a lot more clients than any other commercially oriented template-based hosting services. While PBase is great in quality, they have not really changed since the early days and never went very commercial, they were happy with talented photographers that knew about their service and wanted more or less an online portfolio and high end viewing service...they were not geared toward the great masses of amateurs that entered into the world of digital photography. SM was initially geared toward amateurs sharing--a huge growing segment of consumers taking advantage of new, realtively inexpensive digital photography. Since then, they added features like the Pro line to try and capture people like me for example, part-time professional photographers. People that sell but not full time, and those of us that don't want to fuss with, or cannot afford, doing commercial sales as a sole endeavor. I just want a place to easily get photos up so my clients can look and buy, easy, templates and way to take credit cards and have someone else print them. I'm willing to pay for that service and do.
SM knows how to market and they have a brand that many feel strongly about. Reminds me a little of Apple and how strongly Apple people feel about their machines. They feel far stronger about the product than is justified by the machine itself when looking at it objectively. In SM's case, it is more than a web hosting company, it is a brand loyalty thing. If I was doing my MBA again, a great marketing case study would be to pick their brain for how they built that loyalty...companies live for loyalty. Coke, Apple, Nike, they have followings that go well beyond product, it gets personal and emotional. Just go the DGrin forums and look at the people cheering and profusely thanking the owners when they introduce a new feature, the praise for the owners is quite something to see...and it turns normal people into evangelicals for their product, they are inspired to get converts--almost religious. Reminds me of Sam Walton in the old days, or Steve Jobs at the Apple annual meetings. That whole thing makes me a little wiggy, it gives me the creeps. But who knows, I don't go to professional soccer games any more because all that high emotion makes me uncomfortable.
I would say that Exposure Manager and Zenfolio for example, have tried very hard to emulate this, with limited success. They have the product, in some ways a better product IMHO, but not by much. In the old days, to win a championship boxing match, you really had the pummel the champion, anything like a tie was not enough. The others have not delivered a knock-out blow and frankly, I don't think they will. SM, for the foreseeable future, is the winner. It reminds one of the Hertz and Avis wars on a small scale. Avis was number two and "we try harder." It was not a compelling enough slogan. It was (and maybe still is) Hertz with the lion's share. They were first, they got the market, and they got the loyal following. Once on top, momentum and attention to details (which SM does do as a company) keeps them there. Coke and Pepsi, same thing, brand wars. Coke was first and had smart brand marketing. Does it really matter if Coke or Pepsi tastes better? My taste buds like RC the best, but what comes to mind when I want a "cola"...a Coke of course. There is some of this with Canon/Nikon but less intense than say Apple/PC. Some accessory companies have this. RRS has evangelists, so does Think Tank. They tend not to be ballheads or camera bags, but have moved into personal statements and create emotions that go beyond product.
I think SM really did the whole template based thing first, it caught on and people liked it, they were the first to do the 24 customer service thing (they all do this now), and the guy who gets a new product or service out there first, and keeps at it hard, usually wins. SM seems to fit this story.
Oh well, long post, just some musings. 
Good luck with it!
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Is that what SmugMug and others do?? Even Photo Bucket shrinks the pics down and looses photo quality. 
but that's only for Pro accounts, apparently.