Branding is No Longer the Future of Business

Branding is dead. Bla bla bla...

My eyes roll back in my head when I start reading something like this nowadays. Spend enough time around the blogosphere, and it's real easy to get that 'heard it all before' mentality. But when it comes from the mouth of someone like Russell Davies, there's a reason for pause. If you're in marketing, this post is a must read.

"Branding is no longer the future of business.

There was a point in the 80s when branding was the future of business. Businesses realised you could stick brand value on their balance sheets, so they did. Consultants realised they could charge a lot of money for advice about brands so they did. And the money people looked to the branding people (often conflated with the marketing people) for all the money making ideas. So you got line extensions, big ads, expensive logos, brand onions. You got branding. And most of it was as intellectually rigorous as phrenology. Actually it was probably more like Scientology; it was somewhere between a fake religion and a false science."

And he continues, branding has changed from affecting perceived value to creating actual value.

"Branding is being replaced by design/technology as the future of business.

The dismal nature of the branding science has started to become clear to business recently and they're starting to vote with their investments and appointments. They're turning from the people who create perceptions of value to the people who create actual value - the designers, technologists, innovators. Hence branded utility, hence 'design is the new management consultancy', hence the current Business Week heroes being IDEO and Ives not CHI and Chiat Day. Hence the limited tenures of CMOs. Hence the rise of communications businesses that can actually make stuff rather than just think of stuff."

Obviously, what it means to be in advertising or branding, or whatever is completely different than it was 10, 5, even 2 years ago. Making tv commercials isn't enough to build the relationships, create fans and stimulate business (at least not in the way it did), and doing that one thing won't be a replacement for the other ever again. But, it's still all branding. Surely technology drives the business further, but branding still has a job of not just pushing things to push them, but when they need to be pushed, and then pushing them in the right direction. Or sometimes restraining them in the right way.

And, perception still pulls the emotional weight. Design and technology can create this sort of need, but there's different kinds of design and technology. Creating a better cereal box isn't necessarily in the same realm. We've always had a hand in that on some level.

As I write this from Mexico, I haven't found one damn bottle of Patron. Not one! My favorite of the "Mexican" premium tequilas, and nothing. But still, there I was each Cinco de Mayo slamming Patron shooters. If that's not branding, I don't know what is...

If that made no sense, I apologize. It's not easy to write with the beach in front of you.