How the recession changes marketing and brands
A while back I set forth a three-phase history of brands, as an evolution from mark, to media, to means. I noted that the end of the “media” era was at hand, and that the days of mass market advertising and mass market brands, where brands were little more than stylized sales stimulants, were drawing to a close.
The current recession may have accelerated this process.
The recession impacts traditional marketing and brands
David Armano has some great diagrams and analysis of how the recession is upsetting traditional advertising and marketing models. This sea change is also impacting the traditional concept of marketing-driven brands, where brands were often developed to manipulate customer behavior in a credit-fueled economy. That era is also fading into the past.
Brand culture replaces sales culture
In my view, the current recession leaves brands in a perfect position to supersede the sales culture of marketing with a value culture of innovation and personal relationships. This is brand culture instead of sales culture. Instead of being part of a persuasion package, driven by advertising, brands can become a means of personal growth and expression, with brand platforms creatively designed to transform the personal growth of customers into value added back to the brand. A creative culture of brands is a far more productive environment than the often cynical and exploitative selling culture of advertising.
And, as I said previously, everybody wants a brand experience. Nobody wants a marketing experience.
Brands as a context of opportunity
All this means we have to re-think brands, of course–which is the very purpose of this blog. Going forward, brands are re-conceived as a shared context of value between a company and its customers. Their purpose isn’t to sell, but to unlock customer growth, innovation and opportunity. These deliverables are then networked back to the brand, raising its value and expanding its innovation horizons.
Brands as personal applications
What makes this possible is the advent of always-on digital technology. Think of the iPhone, and its successors. Thanks to digital technology, brands can take the form of “applications,” interactive enablers that are personal, portable and persistent. Instead of being creations of mass-market media, brands become enablers, as a second skin.
Goodbye consumer, hello customer
The current recession may also accelerate the end of the “consumer” era. That “era” was invented to justify a relentless sales culture based on ever-expanding credit. Thinking of fellow citizens as “consumers” treats them as little more than sheep with credit, and now the credit is gone. A “consumer” mindset also depersonalizes company innovation, lowering standards and making breakthrough innovation increasingly difficult, if not impossible.
Creating customers, on the other hand, is the springboard of innovation, and of business strategy. And that’s where brands come in.
