December 4, 2004
branding is dead (cont.)
I’ve been thinking more about the “Why Branding Is Dead” conversation.
Johnnie Moore talking about brands:
Where there is a lot of mischief is when people slip artfully from one definition to another. Thus they start with the broad definition and pay tribute to how consumers now control brands. Then proceed to talk about the branding-as-ideal work they do as if it controls the whole thing.
I left the following in the comments:
Why is branding “dead”? Because it’s no longer a human endeavor where there’s any real, human “ferment” going on. Where there used to be insight, there is now only cannibalisation of older, bigger ideas.
When I think of “cannibalisation”, I think of “Lovemarks” as a classic example.
[UPDATE:] Jeff Jarvis has a nice post on how the commercial model for what he calls “Citizen’s Media” is evolving:
There’s a mesmerizing exchange going on among lots of smart people looking for where the money will be in this explosion of citizens’ media (which, in this case, I broadly define as media controlled by citizens).
My quick answer: I don’t know. Wish I did. But I don’t.
I know the feeling. Heh. Then he gives a list of new possibilities, including:
: Controlled, Transparent Targeting: Smith says behaviorial targeting will be big. Yes, absolutely, but I think even that’s a bit too narrow or short-term. The problem is that as long as you serve me ads that don’t interest me, it’s a waste. Period. Marketers must get closer and closer to giving me only the ads I want.
And that will happen when the market controls the marketers, when consumers control their advertising, when targeting becomes transparent and I get to tell you what I want you to sell me. In advertising as in content: Give the citizens control and you will win; don’t and you will lose.
Let us control our advertising. Come up with the means of doing that and you will sell lots of products and the folks who enable that to happen will make money, too. I’m not sure what happens to ad agencies, but that’s not my problem.
I can mostly go along with this, even if I do think saying “Let us control our advertising” is a bit like saying “Let us control our government”.
i.e. Good luck.
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