How do you get the name of your company or service as the Social Marker? How do you become the Google or iPhone of your world? What is it that you need to do to get people to reference your company or service as the representative example of the whole market? How do you do this so it occurs in regular conversation?

"Social Markers are a prime form of social shorthand, that people use to STAKE OUT the ecosystem they're living in. Obviously, if your product is a social marker in your ecosystem [the way the iPhone is in the mobile world, or Starbucks is in the coffee world, or Amazon is the book world, or Google is in the search world, or Whole Foods is in the supermarket world, or Virgin is in the airline world, or English Cut in the bespoke world etc etc] you will have an AMAZING competitive advantage to call your own.

And if the product your company makes is not a Social Marker, I guess the first question would be, "Why the hell not?" Quit your job and start over." --Hugh Macleod

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004421.html