by Anand Halve
What will go into brandbuilding in the future?
When one does a bit of crystal ball gazing, the essential element involved of course is imaging what changes will take place around us. Let us consider what changes are likely to affect brand-building in the years ahead. But before that, a few words on my perspective on this issue.
It seems to me that too many times, the issue of branding is seen only in the context of “the shopping bag and advertising”; the assumption being that branding exists only, as Portia feared, “in the suburbs of good pleasure”. My belief is that we have now entered an era where people are quite happy to be mobile billboards for Nike and where their brand choices are statements of their life, the view being almost that “I am the brands I use”. Consider what image you form of three persons (in the chart below), about whom the only things you know are their preferences in certain product categories.
See how easily one forms mental pictures of these three hypothetical persons? It is because the brand choices place them in certain social settings. The point is, therefore that the issue of branding needs to be viewed in a much larger context than the marketplace — it needs to take into account the life space of society.
Therefore we need to look at changes in both the marketplace and in the lifespace. The changes taking place in the marketplace are quite clear.
Perhaps the most important phenomenon is the relentless pressure of financial institutions and the stockmarket, seekinga “15 per cent growth per annum ad infinitum”. This puts enormous pressure on managements, often leading to what might be euphemistically called irrational exuberance.
One of the results of this is the imbalance between supply and demand, caused by excess capacities across industries. Thus we are seeing periodic increases in the number of players followed by mergers and shakeouts across categories. Think about the end of Delta and Northwest in airlines; AT&T in telecom, TOMCO and Balsara in FMCG in India, Daewoo and Rover in automobiles…the list goes on.
Second, there is the explosion of competition and the choice available to customers. The increasing opening up of markets is merely making this more so. Thus brands such as Haier, TCL, BenQ, Sagem and others, which you had never heard of, are now crowding the shelves.
Third, this intense competition compels mar keters to seek the bases of competitiveness, which are frankly, over the top. Consider for example, a recent case of a washing machine that had a “speaking” facility. Now is that a really meaningful benefit? Do consumers want washing machines that talk? Next, will they want a toaster with a sense of humour? Advertising for brands of garments routinely offer success in careers and with women, brands of cosmetics regularly offer life-altering changes in hair, skin, and complexion.
Change 1: The democratisation of Brand messaging
While consumers obviously apply an adjustment factor to the legitimate advertising license, I suspect that there is a critical, inexorable change that is taking place in the lifespace of society, thanks to exaggeration on an unending basis. This important change, is that the prospect or consumer does not anymore, consider advertising a high credibility source of information.
In fact, they are now – more and more – taking charge of the messaging.
Here is what Bob Garfield, Columnist, wrote in AdAgeOnline recently (October 11, 2005) in an article titled, “How the Open Source Revolution Impacts Your Brands”. This is what he said, in part:
Hear that?
In the distance? It’s a crowd forming — a crowd of what you used to call your “audience.” They’re still an audience, but they aren’t necessarily listening to you. They’re listening to each other talk about you. And they’re using your products, your brand names, your iconography, your slogans, your trademarks, your designs, your goodwill, all of it as if it belonged to them — which, in a way, it all does, because, after all, haven’t you spent decades, and trillions, to convince them of just that?
Congratulations. It worked. The Great Consumer Society believes deeply that it has a proprietary stake in you. And like stakeholders everywhere, they are letting their voices be heard.
Why? Because the information society is reversing flow. What began as an experiment among a few software nerds has, thanks to the Internet, expanded into other disciplines, notably media and law. But it won’t stop there. Advertising. Branding. Distribution. Consumer research. Product development. Manufacturing. They will all be turned upside down as the despotism of the executive suite gives way to the will, and wisdom, of the masses in a new commercial and cultural epoch, namely: The Open Source Revolution.
TO
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