Branding. Is it dying?

There are more brands than ever. But they’re taking a beating – or, even worse, being ignored. Who’s to blame? A new breed of hyperinformed superconsumers.

And yet there’s something strange going on in branding land. Even as companies have spent enormous amounts of time and energy introducing new brands and defending established ones, Americans have become less loyal. Another remarkable study found that just 4 percent of consumers would be willing to stick with a brand if its competitors offered better value for the same price. Consumers are continually looking for a better deal, opening the door for companies to introduce a raft of new products.

Marketers may consider the explosion of new brands to be evidence of branding’s importance, but in fact the opposite is true. It would be a waste of money to launch a clever logo into a world of durable brands and loyal customers. But because consumers are more promiscuous and fickle than ever, established brands are vulnerable, and new ones have a real chance of succeeding – for at least a little while. The obsession with brands, paradoxically, demonstrates their weakness. (via Wired Magazin

The full article here: The Decline of Brands. And another interesting one Brands aren’t worth as much as we thought

Brands and colours

An interesting article in E-Commerce Times is arguing on the usefulness of colors in nowadays e-commerce branding.

In today’s e-commerce age, where everyone is forced to type and to remember names with perfectly correct spellings, companies with big branding campaigns only hurt themselves with their old-fashioned, painted, colorful advice. They must all reconverge and regroup and realign their thinking to cope with today’s name-driven economy.

For now, it is best to leave the pretty colors of the rainbow in the sky

Read the full article: Customers are color blind

Top 10 influential brands in 2004

world_brands.jpgIn the survey of almost 2,000 ad executives, brand managers and academics by online magazine Brandchannel.com Apple ousted search engine Google from last year’s top spot, but the surprise to many will be Al Jazeera’s entry into the top five.

Ikea still remains the first one in Europe followed by Virgin.In the third position in Europe there is a new entry in the top five, yet another swedish company, the clothing retailer H&M. On the fourth, the world’s leading cellphone maker, Nokia. In fifth position another (this time I would say surprisingly) new entry: the arab news network Al Jazeera, which managed to come in ahead way much bigger competitors like BBC or CNN.

The full results of the survey: Readers Pick Apple in 2004