Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

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  Lucio Dias Ribeiro09/16/08 Report as spam
  1

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  There's a clear change on the ways customers see brand nowadays, but saying that branding is an old concept overcome by "moments" is completely misleading.
  There are some good points here, as being careful for your communication to not become noisy; also that brand is more perceived on POSale, agree with that, however completely disagree on the power of brand fading out.
  Saying Brand is finished is saying that products are not perceived anymore. The point of a brand name is to get into the mind of the consumer and to create perception not sales.
  Cheers
  Lucio Ribeiro
  

  The online Circle

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  jonathansalembaskin09/16/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  My point is that the point of branding -- to get into minds and souls, and thereby create perceptions, not sales -- is pretty much pointless.
  
  I don't deny that people assign thoughts and feelings to products and services, but rather that those associations are the product of experience, conversation, and inputs from reality...versus the contrived inventions of brilliant brand marketers.
  
  Our concepts about branding are not only 'old,' but they're also 'an exception,' in that our ideas are based on a combination of technology, economics, and culture that occurred in the mid-20th Century, and that consumers are reverting back to the ways they've always learned about, adopted, used, and recommended stuff.
  
  Brands aren't just irrelevant, but their relevance was an exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

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  ennyman09/17/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  The ideas here fly in the face of reality and common sense. He may not like brands, but either he doesn't understand them or he just wishes it would all go away. What kind of car does he drive? It's like saying all trees are the same. Personally, I like maple trees in the fall.
  
  Walk thru the halls of any high school and you can see brands are not dead in the fashion realm. Republicans and Dems are established brands that, dislike as we may, exist firmly in the national consiousness.
  
  The author probably hates brands and wants to bring them down a notch... so be it. But to say they are going away any time soon is silliness...
  
  If anything, branding is stronger than ever. Check out Celebritydom. Oprah is not a person. She is a brand.
  
  Just my two cents.
  ennyman

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  bocabart09/17/08 Report as spam
  4

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  I buy that branding is dead when Coke goes belly up, when Dems & Reps together make up less than 50% of Congress, when I no longer see logos in the bottom right corner of my TV screen. And btw, what brand is Mr Fitzgerald smoking?

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  RandiKopp@...09/17/08 Report as spam
  5

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  I just don't buy this, at least from the B2B perspective. If
  I'm selling management training or financial services to
  institutional clients worldwide my brand equity is what
  gets me through the door. No corporate gatekeeper
  would trust me to initiate business with his units in
  Tokyo or Dubai if he didn't initially recognize and
  approve the brand.

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  Michael Fitzgerald09/18/08 Report as spam
  6

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  I don't smoke. But I do like sipping whiskeys.
  Especially Old Potrero Rye.
  
  Baskin doesn't really think branding is dead. He thinks
  the traditional methods of branding no longer work.
  He's not alone in that -- I have a book called the "The
  Brand Bubble" that argues that the value of brands is
  vastly overestimated. I also now have a copy of
  Baskin's book, and will try to get a review up soon.
  
  Michael

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  Lucio Dias Ribeiro09/19/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  to jonathansalembaski-> I don't want to sound precipitated on my assumptions, but inspired on your comment what you are saying is that Brand is still a valid concept, however the way we communicate it is not?
  Lucio Ribeiro
  The online Circle

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  jonathansalembaskin09/20/08 Report as spam
  8

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Lucio, that's exactly what I'm saying!
  
  Brands come from experiences and behavior, and are
  attached to products and services by consumers. So I
  think there's a great opportunity to revise our concept
  of how brands are delivered...
  
  My book, Branding Only Works on Cattle, explores
  what and how this might play out. I don't presume to
  have all the answers; I'm just working to ask better
  questions.
  
  jsb

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  dtaylor71309/24/08 Report as spam
  9

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Ah yes, yet another prophecy of doom for brands. It happens every few years or so. First of all, let's not confuse advertising and communications techniques with branding. They are tools only, and yes, they are changing rapidly. And, no doubt, technology has unmasked some aspects of brand by eliminating certain avenues of mystique. But brand has always been in the experience of the product, and that experience has a lot to do with what the owner of the brand suggests their customer should think. This is most evident with consumer products (how does Corona Beer command such a premium?) but still applicable in nearly every type of business. Mr Baskin may be claiming that the world is now more rational because it is more informed. I highly doubt it. Here's some more proof. Try to find the generic aisle in the supermarket. It doesn't even exist anymore. Centuries from now, when we all communicate by telepathy, brands will still exist, as long as we remain emotional, and at least slightly irrational beings.

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  jonathansalembaskin09/25/08 Report as spam
  10

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Naw. I don't expect decision-making to be any more rational or better than before. Human beings are human beings, after all. And we will also brand things -- if brand means to attach our feelings to objects, not just other living things -- and that branding will most definitely always inspire, if not overtly control, our purchase behavior. But 'brands' as conceived the way dtaylor713 describes them are not The Rule...rather, they are the exception in an otherwise consistent history of people attaching meaning to things, and not the other way around. Corona Beer gets people to endure the taste they don't like, and pay more for it, because of its brilliant branding? Naw. And those aisles in the supermarket? There's so much branding noise and competition that pretty much EVERYTHING is generic. That's why profit margins at grocery stores are so slim.
  
  I don't envision a perfect or even somewhat efficient future. I'm just describing the way things are right now.

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  dtaylor71309/26/08 Report as spam
  11

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Let's focus on Corona for a minute. How do they command such a premium for a relatively ordinary taste? The brand is wildly popular among lower income groups despite its very high cost, because the brand conveys an exclusivity. It's popular in other segmetns for that reason and the sense of escapism they pound into us with their advertising. I'm not sure how that makes Coronoa an exception to The Rule. Seems like branding as usual to me.

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  jonathansalembaskin09/27/08 Report as spam
  12

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Ordinary to you, maybe, but clearly good to others. It's a case history driven by the miracle of taste buds, not branding.
  
  So I agree, it's totally 'branding as usual.'
  
  The fact that individual consumers have attached their desires to Corona's product, versus (or differently from) any other other other products in the category that promote 'escapism' or other nonsense attributes that have nothing to do with drinking beer, isn't proof that Corona's branding 'works.'
  
  Rather, it's proof that human beings attach meaning to things in their lives, and that marketers' ability to predict, control, or fine-tune those associations is pretty much limited...or doesn't really exist.
  
  Who knows why somebody likes a beer, or a tube of toothpaste, or an insurance policy? It just seems far more reasonable for marketers to focus on their behaviors, and on prompting those actions that lead to purchase, than trying to hypnotize people with our brilliant branding.
  
  If they buy our stuff, who cares why?

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  ennyman09/29/08 Report as spam
  13

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Technorati's State of the Blogosphere, Day 5, begins this way:
  
  "Brands make up a major part of bloggers' online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate."
  
  At a Marketing to Hispanics seminar I learned that Hispanics are even more Brand Loyal than typical non-Hispanic consumer...
  
  Baskin's motivations may be suspect here. I have not read his rationale or know his friends, but would guess he enjoys being a contrarian. The evidence goes contrary to what he preaches.
  
  e.

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  ennyman09/29/08 Report as spam
  14

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Here is link to the article...
  Lest there be confusion, Day 5 refers to their series, not the fifth day of when the Blogosphere emerged. This is from Yesterday.
  
  http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/brands-enter-the-blogosphere/

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  ennyman09/29/08 Report as spam
  15

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Please use this TinyURL link. The other formed a breach...
  http://tinyurl.com/3qmctd

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  jonathansalembaskin09/30/08 Report as spam
  16

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Since 'brand' can be anything, or everything, anytime,
  depending on who uses the term, I'm surprised that
  not ALL of bloggers' online conversations are about
  brands.
  
  It's really no surprise that online media are used to talk
  about product or service performance, attributes,
  follow-up, etc. But very little of that conversation is
  made up of the emotions or associations that 'brand's
  spend lots of money to try and attach to said products
  and services.
  
  For that fraction of conversation that actually does
  constitute talk about the vagaries of branding, I'd
  suggest that it doesn't have any direct (or provable,
  really) connection to actual sales. Pointless
  conversation isn't 'engagement' with the brand...it's
  pointless, isn't it?
  
  It's encouraging to hear that a seminar has declared
  that "Hispanics" are more 'brand loyal" than other
  consumers. And perhaps none of the sponsors of the
  event...or the study, or whatever was used to support
  the claim (perhaps surveys that asked for opinions
  about brands?)...have a vested interest in selling said
  branding services to exploit said 'fact?'
  
  I'm not selling anything, other than suggesting we ask
  a different set of questions about branding.

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  ennyman09/30/08 Report as spam
  17

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  To suggest that brand mean anything is to suggest it means nothing. But I would suggest there is a measure of definition that the word carries even if it has some vague outlines in places.
  
  For example, when we see a small flock of sparrows fly across the yard, we may not know if it is 23 or 32 birds that we saw, but we know there was a definite number of birds and not an indefinite number.
  
  Intuitively, we know the word brand means something. And for consumers, brands have value.
  
  As for how marketers turn that into value... by helping give greater definition to their brand.
  
  The blogosphere can be useful for reaping insights as to whether consumers "get it" even if marketers haven't yet figured out how to reap revenue from it in the same manner as a grocery store...

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  jonathansalembaskin09/30/08 Report as spam
  18

  RE: Kiss Your Brand Goodbye

  Naw, it's the other way around: people give value to products and services. And in that sense brands are very, very real. They're measurable, too, if we decide to look less at the inventions of creative minds, and more at the behaviors of those who are doing the naming/assigning meaning/living.
  
  But as my B.A. included a minor in English Romanticism, I love your sparrow example!