The new brand is a mutt, not a pedigreed poodle
Yes, indeed. There’s every chance that brands going forward will be more like a mashed-up mutt than a pedigreed poodle. The days when the brand was paraded as a elite breed with champion bloodlines, showcased every step of the way and groomed to perfection, are drawing to a close. Adaptable, affable companion brands that are a mix themselves, and made to mix anew, are in. We’re entering an age of sidekick brands in which a resourceful brand mutt is the best pal any customer could want.
As newspapers fold, news mashups unfold
This revelation came to me as I was reading Steven Berlin Johnson’s SXSW speech on the future of news in the Internet era. While traditional newspapers may face long odds, Steven sees news itself as expanding online at local and grass-roots levels. (He provides local examples from Brooklyn, NY.) These new brands of news are like street-savvy mutts, blends of blogs, tweets, diaries, mashups, feeds and links that add depth, relevance, meaning and context to local lives. Their forte is nap-of-the-earth texture and immediacy, and a being-there credibility.
I would add SB Nation as another example, on a grander scale. It’s transforming sports reporting into sports communities. Its home-grown stories and commentary are deep and deeply engaging, with 290 sites and real-time content. I am totally spoiled by my local SB Nation baseball site, San Francisco’s McCovey Chronicles. It’s both an online companion to a game, the visceral vibe of what plays out on the field, and a meditation in extensis on team strategy and player development.
Brand applications: personal, portable and persistent
I see this mutt/mashup model extending to other brands in the Internet era. I’ve written previously about a new class of brands called personal brand applications. These down-to-earth enabling brands live on digital devices as brand sidekicks: personal, portable and persistent. Strategically, they are brands as applications. They go where you and I go. What they do defines who they are, and to some extent what you and I can become. Their provenance matters less than the loyal support they deliver. They may have the DNA of hundreds of contributors, or perhaps thousands, like MetaFilter or Twitter, but that is indeed their strength. They are evolving us, not refining us.
Yes, brands will be judged by how loyal they are to you–as they should be.
Photo: ANDI2WHIPLASHEDAWAY — Flickr
Note: Updated 5/31/11.
