The Future of Branding^BRAINSTORM

No buzzword is bigger than ‘brand’ and the forces behind this mega-concept are as dynamic as human desire.

 In the beginning, a product was ‘good’ based on its craftsmanship. How well a product was made was its selling point and key differentiation. The way you sold and advertised a product brandished the uniqueness of its details.

The Age of Industrialization completely revolutionized production, creating thousands of uniform products that were indistinguishable from one another. The factory overshadowed local communities and craftsmanship took a back seat to competitive branding.

“The first brand-based products appeared at around the same time as the invention-based ads, largely because of…the factory,” explains author Naomi Klein, in her book, No Logo. Competitive branding was designed to make products stand out from an environment of overwhelming product similarity.

From Physical to Emotional Branding

From the 19th century to the present-day, the brand has grown and exploded into every facet of human life. Popular culture has created new associations between brands and concepts, such as ‘banana’ and clothing, ‘diesel’ and denim, ‘pumas’ and sneakers, and ‘jaguars’ and cars.

Virtually nothing has been left unbranded. Cityscapes are branded with billboards on buildings, buses, taxis, and jeepneys. Print, radio, television, and online media projects are sponsored by different brands, while music and sports create ‘branded humans’ in the form of rock stars and athletes.

Brands are an unstoppable force, and their influence on the way we think, purchase, do business, and define ourselves demands a deeper understanding of its dynamics. The brand has evolved beyond a logo, a label, a mascot or a tagline — to an experience and lifestyle.

Brand Essentials

A brand is a company’s face to the world. Think onion and its layers: at its core is the physical design of the product; its next layer is the logo and packaging. Next is the buying experience – store design, music, and the people that welcome you. The outermost layer is what happens outside the store. This is where advertising comes in, in all its forms: print, billboard, television, radio, web, and public relations events.

In essence, the brand “personality” is a company’s key weapon to emotionally attract new customers and maintain customer loyalty. Brands have expanded to knowing how you move about day-to-day and companies create products that fit your “lifestyle.” Bench does this well — they casually dress you, provide underwear essentials, give stylish haircuts, feed you, and proudly express your inner “Pinoy.”

Virtual Brand

As the physical world shifts to online platforms, so arises the need to expand our definition of a brand experience. What is an online store? Are online shopping experiences successful when they mimic the real-life experience of trying on clothes, such as in  HYPERLINK "http://www.looklet.com" www.looklet.com and other similar shopping sites? How is branding shaped by the virtual experience? Perhaps more importantly, how is branding redefined by the absence of physical space?

Power Shift

The upsurge in blogging activity adds other dimensions to the modern brand. For decades, companies defined what lifestyles we should aspire to lead. Today, individuals are telling companies what they want – and companies are listening. The predominance of fashion bloggers, for example, influences the industry’s approach to fashion marketing and the trends themselves. Suddenly bloggers, such as Bryanboy, are invited as VIPs to runway shows in NY and Paris or hired to consult on fashion lines. TV stations use social networking for viewers to share what they think and want right now, live for the world to see.

Suddenly, a brand has two sides: its corporate character (its store and website), and its friendlier persona, achieved through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. These have become spaces to talk about things other than business. CEOs now disclose where they went on vacation, what new book they read and other intimate details. It’s redefining “brand personality” and a company, large or small, that fails to engage in such levels of interactivity with its market loses out in the customer loyalty game.

If the current brand story is, "Tell Us...We'd love to hear from you" – then who defines a brand? If individuals participate in building a brand image through social networking, can it be said that brand building is a social affair?

Tell us. We’d love to hear from you.