November 06, 2004
Wired 12.11: The Decline of Brands
James Surowiecki, who is usually seen in The New Yorker, has a new piece in Wired about The Decline of Brands,
Annual rankings of brand value are littered with examples of firms that watched billions of dollars in supposed ‘brand equity’ vanish - not because they messed with their identities, but simply because they didn’t make a product or deliver a service that people needed. Even genuinely powerful brand association is no longer a guarantee that a company will make money. TiVo has revolutionized television, and even introduced a word into the consumer vernacular. But it hasn’t made a dime in profit.He acknowledges the emotional connection that people form with brands, but he focuses strongly on the declining financial value of that connection, taking, as usual, an economic stance. I think he’s missing the point. Maybe brands are the point-of-entry, maybe they are a side-effect, not a driver, of having a good story to tell about what you’re selling. Check out the article - what would Naomi Klein say? A nice response is here.