„Are Brands Going To Be Disempowered?“

BriefLetter - Issue 22/2006

In my opinion, this question about the future of brands cannot be asked in such a cross-the-board manner, as did a German scientist researching trends. Surely, brands whose primary purpose is to label a brand, are slowly but surely going to disappear from the market. But this is not due to the brand, I mean the true brand, having served its purpose, but only because consumers differentiate more and more, even when it comes to brands, between “authentic” and “fake”, between “valuable” and “worthless”.

Brands which have been shaped by the 7-elements, namely origin, history, profile, positioning, image, awareness and protection and in our opinion have thus acquired the right to be considered a true brand do not run the risk of losing their significance. To the contrary, brands are becoming more and more important for all market participants, as assurance for its value, as engine to keep markets booming or to revitalize them, to create new markets or as orientation for the satisfaction of needs or wants.

Who should disempower brands? I don’t even think that the word ‘power’ fits. Brands do not have any power. However, real brands do have a value and nobody really questions that. A world without brands would be a world without orientation and he who thinks everything would be cheaper in such a disoriented world, is terribly mistaken. The opposite would be the case: It is especially the brands which supply all markets and industries with parameters for performance.

To speak of “disempowerment of brands” is true humbug, just like some other things ‘trend researchers’ are publishing as predictions. If I picked up this topic anyway in BriefLetter, even though it does not really deserve much attention then it is because we all need to be careful and diligently watchful in the interest of true brands, if people without qualified expertise make general statements on just about any topic, but also brands.

It is also imperative to keep on working on the elements which define true brands from being labels, within a company just as much as on the market. If I speak of ‘within’ then this is due to the work on the inside often being cut short. Every brand performance depends greatly on how ‘a brand lives’. A strong brand performance requires a high degree of identification with the brand inside the business.

The value of the brand we defend also through creation of new brands. This is so important for the future, because we are in the midst of a process of changing profiles of the market participants. Manufacturers are becoming retailers through verticalization of distribution, through finding new paths directly to the consumer. Retailers become manufacturers, because they replace the traditional purchasing from manufacturers through sourcing marketing.

The commitment to the brand also is shaped through the right to earn interest on its own monetary value, in order to secure its existence through corresponding investments. True brands earn money through lending an immaterial value to the goods and services they stand for, which is what the consumer values and looks for in a product or service. Brands are a guarantee for the best possible price/performance ration. Already due to this reason, brands are an indispensable part of market occurrences.

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