Branding.

Contents:
Part I: Branding. The symbol as argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
From market to company. From company towards the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
The brand as interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
The brand as corpoate metapfor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
From company to world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Towards a springboard for the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Two central uncertainties for branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
How do we handle individualisation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Are we going to see an end to all the emotionality? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
The scenario work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Part II: Scenarios for society og branding 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
1. Create and Brand Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Family life ad hoc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Towards convergence of market og democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Con amore and increasing polarisation in working life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Branding in ´Create and Brand Yourself´ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
2. The Dream Goes On! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Family chronicles and multi-generation communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
The renaissance of the national story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
The company as a greenhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Branding in ´The Dream Goes On!´ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
3. The Rational Individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Focused leisure time and the family af stakeholder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Sub-politics in the civil society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Integration of research and business communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Branding in ´The Rational Individuals´ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
4. The Logic of Great Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Strategic family life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Anti-Americanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
The rational working life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Branding in ´The Logic of Great Solutions´ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Oplysninger om casevirksomheder anno 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
FIGURES
Figure 1: How do we handle individualisation?
Figure 2: Are we going to see an end to all the emotionality?
Figure 3: Four scenarios for branding 2013

Foreword
This members' report is addressed to those that are interested in
or work with communication and management in organisations. It
can be used as inspiration for marketing and organisation and
product development. It contains four scenarios for the society
and branding of 2013.
The scenarios are journeys into the future; journeys where you
see different visions of how branding will evolve. What do we talk
about in 2013? Is corporate branding dead? Has storytelling
come to stay? What new buzzwords have arrived? What have fallen
by the wayside? The answers are many - and varied. So keep
your eyes open. The future is created now
This members' report has been developed in co-operation
with a number of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures
Studies' member companies, which all accepted the challenge
of thinking branding ten years into the future. We
have thus combined the Institute's traditional scenario process
with expert knowledge from the business community.
Hence, in addition to the four scenarios, you can get visions
of branding in 2013 AD from two well-known companies
that, in a traditional market division, are situated in the
field of construction and pharmaceuticals, respectively.
The report's four scenarios are framed by a pair of
axes, based on two central uncertainties:
The individual level: a desire for continued high personal
autonomy, or a willingness to give up some personal
autonomy in favour of new communities? Do we as
individual people still desire a high degree of individualisation?
Or are we in the future going to be in demand of
new communities, even commercial ones?
The societal level: increased emotional and immaterial
focus, or increasingly rational and material focus? Will
the logic of the dream society persist, with a personal
focus on stories, emotions and spirituality? Or have we
passed a saturation point and have begun moving
towards new rationalism in our society?
The four scenarios paint images of possible futures
with different roots in the past. Together they outline a
range of opportunities for the reader's own navigation in
branding work, and they are based on megatrends that are
relatively certain directions of development that change
our society. The basic assumption is that these megatrends
develop alike in all scenarios, but turn up in different guises.
The scenarios have also taken shape in a Scandinavian
context under influence from increasing globalisation.
The scenarios should be used as tools for inspiration.
There isn't any one scenario that is truer than the others
are. They are all possible, most likely even in mutual combination
- though not, depending on the reader and his or
her field, equally desirable.
The scenarios show how different interpretations of
certain driving forces can lead to different futures. Hence,
the scenarios are also tools for influencing the world.
Enjoy the members' report!
Morten Grønborg, project manager
The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

4
Part I
Branding. The symbol
as argument
In this part of the report we outline the development of the branding
phenomenon from marketing to corporate branding - a
holistic management and communication discipline where ethical
responsibility has supplemented the company's traditional
aesthetic and emotional self-reflection. We provide a comprehensive
view of branding today and show how it is possible to consider
the future through scenarios based on central uncertainties

5
From market to company.
From company towards the world
Branding is today's buzzword in organisations and companies. Most of us
know intuitively what the concept covers - even though marketing and advertisement
agencies collectively try to blur the image with each their own patented
and unique expression of the concept. Brand Positioning programme, Brand
Building System, Corporate Religion, you name it. Paradoxically for a field that
otherwise makes its living from creating clarity and visibility, but also a sign
that branding has become established everywhere. Even companies and organisations
that normally live well and hidden have become aware of the necessity
of communicating and acting consistently in an information-dense world.
In its origin, branding is a marketing tool, and the goal as such is to create
a preference for one product compared to other products in the same category.
To create immaterial added value and hence cancel an otherwise generic product
or performance situation where the only alternative is competing on
price. Price competition can be a good thing, but generally speaking it is only
fun for the one that in fact is cheapest.
When speaking of branding, it isn't uncommon to draw parallels all the
way back to how the Vikings and potters branded their swords and jars. The
goal here was to distinguish the products from each other so that a sword
wasn't just a sword, but a very special one (differentiation). Branding is
often also compared to the cattle raisers' red-hot branding of cows, where
the object was to visually mark ownership of a herd in relation to other cattle
raisers (property rights).
Another obvious analogy must be the branding of human beings, which
several Western nations have practised through various historic periods.
Today, of course, branding isn't of the flesh, but of the mind: the influence
over consumer behaviour that can be realised at the moment of purchase or
over an extended period. Thus, in marketing circles people speak of owning
the relation to the consumers and hence owning the market, just as people
through storytelling as a communication tool seek to construct an image of
reality through stories.
A GENERIC PRODUCT is a product
that is a copy of or interchangeable
with another product.
E.g., pharmaceuticals with the
same active ingredients can mutually
replace each other. The idea is
that a product contains a sum of
technical and physical traits that
serve to fulfil a function with a
specific quality and value to the
customer. Electricity should come
out of our outlets and make our
lamps shine, mineral water should
slake our thirsts, etc.
The brand as interface
Working with brand name goods originated with the transition to the 20th century.
Up to then, most daily shipping took place at the local grocery store. Face
to face, the grocer guaranteed the quality of the anonymous goods. But with the
advent of the logo and the brand name, this 'significant meeting' was replaced
by a constructed interface between the customer and the anonymous product.
We began trusting in Uncle Ben and Jack Daniel's. With an accelerated pace
from the 1950s to today, product branding has been developed to its utmost.
From trust to demand, from demand to dream and objects of desire.
Several theoreticians e.g. describe how the great producers of brand
name goods in the 1980s realised that the production of physical products
and specific services simply was a subordinate part of their companies,
while other companies founded at this time already from their inception
freed themselves from the physical realm and solely sold shows and dreams.
In both cases we experience that the product at times is reduced to an
emblem that follows this dream and that philosophy, which the brand represents
when we buy it. Just do it! The real thing! Connecting People! Signs to
navigate by in a fragmented and individualised world where pre-formulated
vigour, a claim of originality, and a dream of togetherness can sell shoes, soft
drinks and mobile phones.
"Some of the logic, terminology
and value perception that has
been operative for branded
goods, can through corporate
branding be transferred to the
company itself. The company
itself becomes a brand."
Majken Schultz & Mogens Holten
Larsen in "Den udtryksfulde
virksomhed"

6
The brand as corporate metaphor
The current ideal for company organisation and communication is corporate
branding, which as the name implies is about marketing the individual company,
not just its products and services. The logic of product branding has
thus been transferred to the company itself. The company is a brand; it
doesn't just sell them.
The idea is that a company's value no longer just is its material or functional
value; i.e., products, profit in euros and cents, real estate and furnishing;
but rather the immaterial value that is attributed to, or potentially can
be attributed to the company in terms of a particular image or a certain position
among interested parties. For this reason we may from time to time
encounter a corporation with a market value far higher than its book value.
According to this philosophy, it is no longer enough for companies to
brand their products. The company itself is put into play, and in this sense
corporate branding builds on a centuries-old development that makes it both
strong and almost uncontradicted as a discipline. Quite simply, it has for a
long time been common sense to strive to use symbols as arguments where
product advantages no longer are relevant. The result can be seen everywhere
in the Western world, where big companies strategically communicate
their unique company identity through a single name and a single image
in all media, products and activities. A so-called monolithic brand strategy.
With corporate branding the attempt to gain mental power over consumers
at the moment of purchase is taken to the next level. An attempt is
made to create an influence that no longer simply is associated with a single
product (the product brand), but rather a range of values to which the company
subscribe (the corporate brand). Thus, corporate branding today is
expressed in an effort to win the individual's approval of an entire mindset
or philosophy. The idea is formulated radically by one of the most famous
figures in Danish branding, Jesper Kunde, who among other things has authored
the book Corporate Religion. He notes that the goal of a company
should be to create a corporate brand so powerful that a religious status is
achieved among the stakeholders.
This is an idea that finds resonance in a time where society's big stories
long have been declared dead by post-modernist thinkers - and where God
has been made powerless for generations (Nietzsche).
In this philosophy, storytelling is expanded to not just being a communication
tool. Brand and story blend. Storytelling becomes a tool for creating
identity. Precisely the way religions, ideologies and stories about the nation
state through the ages have created identity and influenced the mindsets of
people. Harley Davidson is a brilliant and often used example of such storytelling.
The product isn't a motorcycle; the product is a philosophy of life
and a relation to a group of people.
THE STAKEHOLDERS are the
groups in and around a company
that have an interest in
the company's existence and
operation. Parties that influence
and are influenced by a
company's actions. Among a
company's stakeholders are
counted the company's
employees and owners, users
of the company (customers
and clients), groups in the
local area (local politicians,
community groups, local
press), the society as a whole
(public authorities, interest
groups) and the mass media
"A Corporate Religion is … a centralist
model that requires the
management to take the big
responsibility and draws all power
back to the company's original
centre. The main purpose of a
Corporate Religion is to strengthen
and align the company's efforts.
This makes Corporate Religion a
centralist philosophy - and an ideological
philosophy. With a
Corporate Religion, an entire company
chooses to be led by a spiritual
management"
Jesper Kunde in "Corporate Religion"
"God is dead; but given the ways
of men, there may still be caves for
thousands of years in which his
shadow will be shown"
Friedrich Nietzsche in "Die Fröhliche
Wissenschaft" ("The Gay Science")
From company to world
Dealing with branding today is thus important based on the viewpoint that
branding far more than before is concerned with 'the societal' and especially
with the discursive power that determines it. This idea isn't new, but is discussed
in detail in NGO circles, whose critical view of especially the global
bands has found a common voice with the Canadian journalist and writer
Naomi Klein. In her best-seller No Logo, Naomi Klein makes the observation
that the companies' most significant asset is the opportunities and conditions
offered by their brand for co-creating a society's political, economic
and social structure. Put succinctly, branding is the company's way of advocating
and advertising aesthetically for a certain societal ideal.
The development from product to corporate branding most likely contri-
NGO is short for Non-
Governmental Organisations. It is a
broad term for organisations that
work with specific political subjects,
independently of governmental
interests and party policies

7
butes to increasing power for global corporations, as pointed out by Naomi
Klein and others. However, it also obligates the individual company to use its
power responsibly. It must assume ethical responsibility, as expressed in the
idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This means that the company's
traditional aesthetic and emotional self-reflection and expression is
expanded to also include reflections of how much it contributes to the values
of its stakeholders and to society as a whole. In this respect it isn't the company,
but the stakeholders that seek influence. Here it is no longer enough
for the CEO to be able to present a profit; the stakeholders also want insight
into the way that the company has made its profit. And into the plans of
how the profit is going to be used. Also, most employees generally want to
be able to vouch for the company they work for.
The concept of 'the triple bottom line' is an expression of companies'
desire to meet such a demand. Social and environmental considerations are
made voluntarily, and the results are published and reported in line with the
economic. The Danish company Novo Nordisk is renowned for employing
this kind of triple vision.
A statement from The European Council in Lisbon in March 2000 bear
testimony that not only ephemeral categories like 'the general public' and
'the consumers' want an increasing ethical focus in the companies. The
government leaders of EU appealed directly to companies' sense of social
responsibility in fields like life-long learning, the organisation of work, equal
rights, social interdependence, and sustainable growth. CSR was put on the
official agenda of Europe.
"Corporations are ... the most
powerful political forces of our
time … citizens must go after corporations
not because we don't
like their products, but because
corporations have become the
ruling political bodies of our era,
setting the agenda of globalization.
We must confront them, in
other words, because that is
where the power is"
Naomi Klein in "No Logo"
"Several studies unanimously indicate
that wages and possibilities
of promotion no longer play the
dominant role. Meaningful work,
personal and professional stimulation
in a good social environment,
pride in the company's standing,
and ethics were the topmost criteria
for choice of workplace"
Mette Morisng & Peter Pruzan in
"Stigende fokus på virksomheders
sociale ansvar"
Towards a springboard for the future
When you focus on the future of branding, it is profitable to keep an eye on
the present incarnations; and as we have shown, branding isn't an unambiguous
term. The theoretician Wally Olins distinguishes between three basic
types. The first is the monolithic corporate branding strategy, as described
on page 6.
The second is the central control of a number of singular product
brands: Branded Identity. Here, the company is hidden from the consumers,
and the individual brands function independently of each other. A wellknown
example is the corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G), which markets
as diverse brands as Ariel, Vicks, Pampers and Mr. Proper.
The third strategy is used when a corporation has a number of products
and services with individual names or identities, supported by a common
name or common identity: Endorsed Branded Identity. An example of a
company that uses this strategy is Nestlé. Unlike P&G, they attempt to create
a synergy between the company and the products. KitKat, Nesquick and
Häagen-Dazs are thus connected visually and literally in marketing through
use of the Nestlé logo.
To Olins' three strategies we may add a fourth strategy, as the business
school researcher Mette Morsing points out. There is a variant of Endorsed
Brand Identity, called Co-branding, where two or more already strong monolith
brands join forces in a common campaign or a long-term relationship in
order to achieve synergy. An example of this is the so-called Star Alliance cooperation
between a number of airlines, including SAS.
Finally, we can mention private labels, which as implied in the name only
are sold from the producer's own stores. Shops like Ikea and Hennes & Mauritz
mainly sell their own brands from their own shops and hence can influence the
customer directly at the moment of purchase, which naturally is a crucial parameter.
Thus, in principle, the threads of the traditional vertical market system
(producer-distributor-retailer-customer) are gathered in one hand.
"We have become aware that sustainable
growth isn't just a matter
of environment. It is also very
much a matter of people. Today
the big international corporations
are expected to assume greater
responsibility for realising the
vision of sustainable growth …
What used to be solely the
responsibility of the government
has now also become the responsibility
of the companies"
Novo Nordisk: Environmental and
Social Report 2000

8
Two central uncertainties
for branding
Branding is of course also going to be a diverse phenomenon ten years from
now. The purpose of this report is thus to outline the range of possibilities
through different images of the future. What trends in branding will be the
dominant in ten years? What new trends will have arrived?
As a start, it is interesting to note that the development in the dominant
corporate branding even today seems to pull in two different directions.
On the one hand it is by now commonly acknowledged that a company
can't be something for everyone. That you have to probe the terrain and formulate
your unique traits and your values. That communication should be
consistent in order to penetrate. And that the goal is to become a strong and
unambiguous corporate brand, which the stakeholders will follow.
With this increased focus on corporate branding we have in a way come
full circle history-wise, since once again it is the company (the grocer), not
the product (the brand as interface), that is in focus. Note that the customer
is somewhat absent in this relation.
On the other hand, the ethical focus, as expressed in the idea of the triple
bottom line, outlines a path towards increased ambiguity. The focus is directed
away from the company towards the surrounding world. If corporate
branding is an attempt to create clarity in a complex world by introducing
an unambiguous culture (values, rules, order, safety), this trend is rather an
attempt to reflect the complexity and hence operate on the terms of the centre-less
world, where it no longer is possible to view and comprehend the
world through a single optic.
The triple bottom line can thus be expanded to a strongly differentiated
communication towards all interested parties in and around the company. In
its ultimate consequence this will lead to an atomisation of the organisation,
held loosely together by a loosely defined structure. I.e., no overarching common
values, but a heterogeneity that in principle can exist all the way down
to the level of the individual person and can reflect the increasing individualisation
in society.
THE CENTRE-LESS WORLD is
described in the book Det hyperkomplekse
samfund (The Hyper-
Complex Society) by Lars
Qvortrup. The idea is that the
world no longer has a single central
point; it no longer has a centre.
Earlier societies had as their
centre God (the deocentric society)
or man (the anthropocentric
society). This determined the cosmos,
since you had one point of
view from which to organise the
world. In the centre-less (or polycentric)
world, society is so complex
that it can't be understood
through a single optic. It can't be
communicated in a single code.
Instead one has to adopt varying
optics and communicate in varying
codes. A requirement of organisations
in this perception of the
world is thus to observe and communicate
with the surrounding
world with a set of optics that
match the complexity of the surrounding
world. Here e.g. the triple
bottom lone represents a systemisation
of such varying codes and
communication modes
How do we handle individualisation?
In line with this dual development, we have in the scenario work for this
report asked ourselves whether the employees, consumers and individuals of
the future are willing to give up some personal sovereignty in favour of commercial
community (or communities as such), or if we increasingly wish to
retain the high personal autonomy and strong personal freedom of choice
brought us by the lengthy process of individualisation. This uncertainty describes
the horizontal axis of the scenario cross:
The individual level: a desire for continued high personal autonomy, or
a willingness to limit personal autonomy in favour of new communities?
The question on the individual plane is thus how we choose to govern our
individualisation. 'Individualisation' means that the individual human being
increasingly shapes and chooses its lifestyle and manner of living. Mankind
has become autonomous or culturally liberated, as expressed by the German
youth researcher Thomas Ziehe. The term covers the thesis that the development
since the middle of the previous century in our part of the world has
meant that mankind ideologically and in reality has been freed from family
relations, class, religion, state, and in part also from age and gender: the organised
communities that in earlier societies made the world familiar and
"The concept of 'cultural liberation'
… is an expression of the
necessity for retaining dissolution
and liberation, loss of tradition
and new fields of opportunity, as
two sides of the same cultural
process of evolution. Through this,
Ziehe underlines a fundamental
principle of the modernisation
process: Only through retaining
both extremes do you become
able to relate in a productively critical
way to the chimerical nature
of the modernisation process"
Elo Nielsen about cultural liberation in
"Pædagogik og frisat ungdom"

9
homogeneous over an extended period.
These communities implied a clear bond, since the individual was prevented
from shaping his or her own life. At the same time, though, life was
in many ways easier because the responsibility for how life turned out didn't
rest on the individual's shoulders to nearly the same extent that it does
today. Hence, increasing autonomy and cultural liberation aren't necessarily
true liberation: When everyone else has become autonomous and liberated,
we no longer have the same certainty of how others will act in the future
and can't use this as a basis for our own actions. The total impulsiveness is
also a kind of bond: a bond of never-ending choices.
Precisely this ambivalence is central in the society of the future. Hence,
the question in the field of branding is what we in the future want to use
with our autonomy and freedom of action for. Do we wish to buy into a large
and pre-formulated story through a global brand like Nike - or do we wish to
tell our own story through active orchestration of consumption, personal signals
and personal statements? Do we as employees want to be part of a working
community with fixed values and a specific image - or do we want to
express our own values, be part of a loosely defined network and create our
own image?
We could also ask whether we in relation to society, workplace and consumption
generally move towards true individualisation or group-individualisation.
The extremes are outlined in figure 1.
FIGURE 1
Desire for continued high
personal autonomy
Willingness to limit personal autonomy
in favour of new communities
Zeitgeist/logic
Atomism
Liberalism
Holism
Communitarianism
The individual
Self-oriented
Desires free choice
Desires pragmatic values
Community-oriented
Desires solutions
Desires principal values
Driving forces
Self-confidence
Mobility
Surplus of knowledge
Desire for identity
Anchoring
Surplus of information
Note that we don't question individualisation as such as a megatrend. The
division is not between the atomised world and the traditional, destined
communities. The division is between two worlds that both have individualisation
as prerequisites.
Are we going to see an end to all the emotionality?
In 1999 the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies published the book
The Dream Society. In this, we presented a cohesive expression of what had
been the Institute's main message up through the 1990s: We were heading
towards the storytellers' era - towards the domination of emotions, dreams
and the immaterial in all spheres of society. A condition that already at the
time of publishing was a reality in parts of the business world and which in
many ways explains the societal development that is the basis for branding.
The Dream Society is born of a growth in wealth in the Western world,
which has provided a financial surplus and has placed the individual in the
top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We have become rich enough to prioritise
the immaterial and emotional in the shape of experiences, stories, reflection,
ethics, religiosity and spirituality - and to assume that the material,
functional and rational works and exists as a matter of course.
When general consumption increases, we also increasingly spend
resources on immaterial products like service, insurance, travel, phoning,
"After having discussed and filled
the blackboard with 50 examples,
the conclusion was clear: Stories
appeal to the heart rather than to
the mind, was the general theory …
the term 'Dream Society' was
obvious. The market for dreams
would gradually become larger
than the market for realities. The
market for emotions would overshadow
the market for physical
products"
Rolf Jensen in "The Dream Society",
the Copenhagen Institute for
Futures Studies

10
and adventure. Services that very much have emotional value. At the same
time, we increasingly focus on other personal abilities than the purely logical/scientific.
A modern leader e.g. has to be not just vigorous, professionally
competent and able to see the big lines. He or she also has to be a good communicator
and possess social intelligence with an eye for the organisation's
interpersonal relations. The word empathy has in the last five years been one
of the most used in job advertising.
Nevertheless, in this report we open our minds to the possibility that we
in the years to come are going to see significantly less focus on the immaterial
and emotional. That perhaps we, for the time being, have reached a saturation
point regarding stories, emotions and spirituality. That we need clarity
and fixed points of reference, financially as well as mentally. This uncertainty
outlines the horizontal axis of the scenario cross:
The societal level: increasing emotional and immaterial focus or
increasing rational and material focus?
We don't as such question the growth of wealth in the Western world.
Nothing suggests that we in the long term are heading towards bad times.
But in the short term - the next ten years - it is possible that we in the
Scandinavian countries are going to see a deviation from the overall picture.
At the time this is written, we have experienced some years of economic
slowdown in Scandinavia. In a prognosis, Danish Industry estimates that we
are facing the worst years for the Danish economy since 1993. If this trend is
increased in the years leading up to 2013, the effect could be new rationality
in the business community. This will mean an increased need to show
results - to show that some things can be carried out and that the focus is on
the bottom line. Who are in demand for massage, stories and adventure
when they are facing a crisis?
If this is the case, the development will turn away from the emotional
focus towards an increasingly rational focus. The trend may be strengthened
by the simple fact that in cultural history, it is common that a societal focus
on the rational versus the emotional comes in waves. One of the clearest
examples is the romantic renaissance that went through the European cultures
in the first half of the 19th century. This was very much a reaction to the
18th century's enlightenment and rationalism, which focused too much on
sensibility. Using such an optic, the focus of the 1990s on adventure, emotions
and storytelling can be seen as a reaction to the preoccupation of the
1980s with finance, growth, personal consumption and yuppie mentality.
It is thus also possible that we are facing a new societal rationalism as a reaction
to the opposite. The rapid technological development may be another driving
force, as it leads to hitherto unheard-of possibilities for product development.
We could thus ask, is the emotional or the rational story going to win in
the future? Will we still desire to buy emotions and symbols - or are we
increasingly going to buy function and utility? Will product branding continue
to grow - or will product development see a new renaissance? Will
adventures continue to be a part of our consumption and our working life -
or are adventures just something for when we are on vacation and having
fun? The extremes are outlined in figure 2.
When viewed in isolation, the two uncertainty axes are both familiar,
since their inherent opposites all exist in society today. The question is simply
what trends will generally gain ground and what consequences this will
have on branding. When viewed together, the axes frame four scenarios for
the society and branding of 2013. They can be read in their entirety in part
II of this report, while the development specifically in the field of branding
is outlined in the next section.

11
FIGURE 2
Increasing emotional
and immaterial focus
Increasing rational
and material focus
Zeitgeist/logic
Experiences matter
Time = value
Results matter
Time = expense
The individual
Thinks abstractedly
Buys emotions and symbols
Desires added value
Acts concretely
Buys utility value
Desires solutions
Driving forces
Economic growth
Reduction of risks, e.g. terrorism
and war
Stagnation/recession
Growth in risks, e.g. ditto
The technological development
The scenario work
The future doesn't simply arrive; it is created. For this reason, no futurist
can draw a precise image of what will happen in the field of branding in the
years to come. But through insight into developing trends it is possible to
illustrate the range of possible futures inside which the reality to come most
likely will unfold. A systematised method is the scenario model. Scenarios
are images of possible futures, created with a basis in the present and the
forces and trends that influence the market and the rest of the world. The
work in this report is based on a criss-cross model based on the two central
uncertainties explained above. The model is illustrated in figure 3, where the
main features of branding in the four scenarios are shown.
FIGURE 3
Increasing emotional and immaterial focus
1. Create and Brand Yourself
2. The Dream Goes On!
Desire for continued high personal autonomy
The great corporate story loses. Only the global and culture-bearing
megastories survive. Our own personal interpretation wins.
Corporate branding is dying out. We have our own identity and
don’t want to assume that of the company. The business community
is inspired by the terrorist networks, which have the world’s
most up-to-date form of organisation. Terror Brands is a new
buzzword. The employees are self-managed individuals. Intuition
becomes accepted as a tool for decision-making. Massive
mass-market marketing is in decline. The market for the emotional,
personal, interactive and tailor-made is growing. Person
brands are growing, also in non-creative fields. Situational advertising,
flash mobs and happenings gain ground. Intelligent packaging
is implemented. Read the entire scenario from page 15
3. The Rational Individuals
The little rational story wins. Companies with fixed and broadly
expressed values lose. Categorical truths are only for the narrow-sighted.
The old market system is in decline along with the
classic, static organisation and its emotional story. Dynamic networks
gain ground along with a pull logic. Mass customisation is
the word of the day. The branding idea comes full circle. The
product has a renaissance. Product Power replaces Brand
Power. Companies have many faces according to the situation.
Advertising is adapted specifically for each group of stakeholders.
The goal is decentralisation and adaptation. E-trade has
gained momentum everywhere. Digital agents help us consume
rationally. Read the entire scenario from page 24
Corporate branding has won. The company is the product.
Branding is management. Organisations see themselves as integrated
systems that give us meaningful stories about the world -
and about our place in it. The commercial stories are carriers of
the society. At the same time there is a lot of focus on tribal marketing.
The point is to create social groupings around a product.
Sociologists psychologists are the favoured consultants in the
business community. The Dream Society is still a reality. The
logic of the trendsetter rules. Brand Extension is a keyword. The
volume of advertising has increased. A push logic is prevailing
and mass-marketing is growing. The methods are refined in
order to be heard through the noise. The sceptics speak of ad
creep. Read the entire scenario from page 19
4. The Logic of Great Solutions
Corporate branding is made obsolete in the public space.
Creativity is no longer a key value for agencies. Digital agents as
decision-makers challenge the marketed emotionality, rational
communities arise from the rubble of the Dream Society.
Alliances are made like never before. Global giants of solutions
have a field day. The product is thought into pre-formulated connections.
Chains and wholesale societies have field days.
Automatic customer data once agian unite customer and shopkeeper
in a close relationship. External emotional expressivity in
companies is toned down in favour of the organisation as a system
for the employees in all aspects of life. CSR is thus not a
possibility, but a basic condition. Personal branding is in decline.
Read the entire scenario from page 28
Desire for limitation of personal autonomy in favour of new communities
Increasing rational and material focus

12
The precise future to come may not be represented by any of these scenarios,
but they provide an opportunity to look for indicators and evaluate the possible
consequences for the reader's company. Metaphorically speaking, the scenario
approach invites to seeing the future as a range. The scenarios span this range.
It is the range itself that is interesting, rather than the individual scenarios.
Where should we move in it? Where do we wish to be situated? This is a strategic
choice in each company - not a question of prediction.
All the scenarios are based on three megatrends, which are described below.
However, the connection to branding as a phenomenon is far from simple for
these megatrends. For instance, the fact that the media situation is changing because
of computer technology may not lead to qualitative changes. The essence
of branding can in principle be constant though the possibilities for communication
change. The megatrends we have used interact with the chosen uncertainty
factors. The scenarios thus tell different stories about how society reacts to the
development that takes place in the present. Society is complex and will remain
so in the future. With the scenarios, we present four simplified images.
MEGATREND: PERVASIVE COMPUTING
The new generation of computer technology; also called 'ubiquitous computer technology'. The progression towards pervasive
computing is a reality. The question is how the technology is implemented in the four scenarios and how it will influence
our behaviour. Pervasive computing is characterised by being built-in, specialised and often not visible. In this report, it is
generally described in two versions:
Wearable Computing: Using computers that are physically smaller than traditional ones, but more specialised in their
function. They are easy to integrate and are often hidden in traditional items like wristwatches or clothing. Wearable
Computers (WC) are personal tools that often use wireless technology and communication through satellites. An example
from 2003 is the wearable Mp3 player.
Embedded Computing: Built-in computer technology in public and private spaces, buildings and larger tools. In this case
the technology usually isn't personal, but can be used by different users. The computer becomes a part of the physical environment
and becomes more or less hidden. A current vision of the home of the future has e.g. voice-controlled locking
mechanisms and digital refrigerators.
Source: Ingrid Haug: "Det usynlige vidunder - en filosofisk og æstetisk undersøgelse af pervasive computing" 2003
MEGATREND: STIGENDE FORANDRINGSHASTIGHED
More technological, commercial and social innovations are made per time unit today that ever before. The pace of change is
increasing, and the goal of a large part of the developments is to improve the human condition. It is a great degree of freedom
to be able to work long distance from Isle of Wight even though you work for a London-based company. To be able to
take food out of the freezer and heat it in a minute in the microwave. To find your way in the emptiest of places with your
car's GPS navigation system. The picture is clear: we want to both get more out of our time and to be increasingly in control
of it. At the same time our field of attention is expanded through technology, IT and global media coverage, so that today we
are informed about of the changes than we used to be. Often this is also a necessity in order to deal properly with social life
and work.
The fly in the ointment is that the developments often give us less time. We continually have to get acquainted with new
things. Qualities like 'experienced' and 'practised' lose their significance. 'Adaptability' and 'flexibility' are the new requirements.
The question is what the pace of change and the complexity will do to us. Will time become an expense or a goal?
How is the general ensured in the face of the specific?
MEGATREND: GLOBALISATION
Globalisation is a concept with many different interpretations. The different perceptions contain one or more of the following
descriptions with different weights: 1) An increasing number of global companies that operate on international markets with
global strategies and global products. 2) Liberalisation of international trade and the emergence of new countries exporting
industrial products, toughening the competition for the developed capitalist countries. 3) The technological revolution in
communication and transportation that has made quick contact with all parts of the world possible. 4) Cultural globalisation
in the shape of travelling, media and immigration, leading to global dissemination of mass culture from USA and to new
multiethnic cultural blends. 5) The erosion of the national states' sovereignty and ability to pursue classical political goals
with classical means in favour of improved international co-operation. How will the majority react to the development in the
future? Is globalisation a boon that we want to promote? Or an evil we want to combat?

14
Part II
Scenarios for society
and branding 2013
Welcome aboard a journey ten years into the future. A journey to
four different societies of 2013 AD. A journey where you will see different
visions of how branding will evolve - and how society evolves.
What will be the topics in 2013? Is corporate branding dead?
Is storytelling going to stay the course? What new buzzwords are
we going to have? What have vanished? Do we really want to live
the corporate values? Or are we going to express our own values?
Become our own brands? Will companies be virtual networks or
big conglomerates - or are most people going to work as free
agents? The answers are many - and varied.
Basically it is a matter of what choices we make together. The
future is created. What the reader can do is thus to keep an eye
out for indicators for the emergence of the individual scenarios and
to formulate a 'if that happens - then we will do this'

15
1. Create and Brand Yourself
Life isn’t a theme park we
passively walk through
The individual experiences the Western world as a diverse culture that isn't
delimited or defined as a society as such. Market economy and multicultural
residential areas has increasingly gained ground in Scandinavia, where the state
authorities have slimmed down with few regulations for the freedom of action
of the individual.
The subcultural undercurrents are often differentiated down to the level of
the individual. However, generally speaking the variations are based on common
human needs, but the challenges are seen as individual rather than collective.
You choose your own affiliation and in each situation adapt to the norms
of the different subcultures.
The traditional common frames of reference are strained. The role of the
public service channels is declining in favour of a multitude of pay-per-view services.
Many still talk about the good old days when national TV series could
gather the nation in front of the screen Sunday night. Those were the days,
some say. Awful, say others.
The idea of independent schools has seen a renaissance while the municipal
schools increasingly try to be 'communities with latitude'. In line with
grammar schools they increasingly make room for the opportunity of individualised
learning at the expense of what used to be called 'liberal education'.
Similarly, 'open out-of-school education' has come to stay.
Existential and personal problems take up more room in the general picture.
However, the protestant church increasingly finds it hard to exchange the
interest in the spiritual for more churchgoers, and many Scandinavians have no
problems with mixing their personal protestant faith with a belief in reincarnation.
Others convert to Buddhism, which quite simply is well suited to our pragmatic
approach to religion.
At the same time, the monopoly on names is challenged. Who says Laura is
better than Aura? The pragmatic and personal gains ground at the expense of
the universal and the principal.
EMOTIONAL
AND IMMATERIAL FOCUS
/ HIGH 1PERSONAL
2
AUTONOMY
3 4
Family life ad hoc
We see a variety of living arrangements, but the nuclear family is still the
most common. It is a base for the family members' commute between work
and leisure activities. The dream family is tailor-made more than before, and
the societal barriers surrounding adoption and insemination have lessened.
That is true for the individual's free choice. At the same time it is necessary
to turn the dropping fertility curve.
While the home's kitchen/family room in traditional homes becomes
increasingly central for family life, it also becomes increasingly common for
each resident to have his or her own room. This is no longer just a children's
prerogative. The living room is replaced by egoist rooms. At the same time,
we see more hermit dwellings - also for people with relationships. The many
divorces and shared child arrangements have inspired those who still stick
together to take action in time and simply live apart some of the days of the
week. The children follow the parents alternately or together. Conversely, the
true family moments are much more staged and planned. Quality time isn't
just something you spend with your children, but also with your partner. In
this way some of the friction between working life and family life is lessened.
A common phenomenon among the well-off is 'the third home' - the
boat, recreational vehicle or timeshare flat abroad - which supplements the
family house and the summerhouse. Self-management and self-control of
the home gains ground as a natural result of our focus on individual oppor-
CREATE AND BRAND YOURSELF
THE SATELLITE STORY
The relationship between brand
story and man: The ‘satellite story’
is the ideal. Emotional megastories
and the individual’s personal
story circle each other and occasionally
intersect

16
tunities for action, even long distance. With the control viewer we can let
the plumber into our homes while we are at work - and check if we remembered
to turn off the iron. In this way, embedded computing becomes an
integrated part of private spaces like our homes and our cars. Navigation
systems are standard equipment in new medium-priced cars. At the same
time the systems blend into a converged network so that entertainment and
logistic aids can be connected in all sorts of ways. Embedded computing is
worked into the public spaces at a very slow rate. It is generally agreed that
the feeling of surveillance is the worst.
Wearable computing (WC) is gaining ground where it strengthens the
personal freedom of action of the individual. Street advertising that can
send internet links to people's WCs is now more common than simple posters.
In recent years, this technology has been expanded to include
Bluetooth and has found fertile ground everywhere. At the bus stop you can
e.g. access updated information about delays.
Towards convergence of market and democracy
The nation states have generally lost significance for Scandinavians.
However, a minority of the population still seeks to stage the nation as a
counterpoint to globalisation. This movement was ushered in around the
turn of the millennium with the growth of the nationalistic right- and leftwing
parties.
Nor do people show much interest in EU, which only really functions in
trade matters and on the technical level. The borderless internet corrodes arbitrary
national borders. For most people the prevailing picture is one of a complex
and global world, and intuition is becoming more accepted as a decisionmaking
tool.
Parliamentarianism in the classical sense is increasingly perceived as uninteresting.
More and more vote with their wallets and participate in electronic
referendums. But the turnout at the last general election was poor, as with the
one before.
Market and democracy are melding. In the same breath as the political
consumer, we now also talk about the hypersensitive consumer, who on the
one hand reacts strongly to impressions and signals sent from the complex
media market and on the other hand consumes, acts and seeks self-actualisation
by using and refining others' expressions and developing his or her own.
Con amore and increasing polarisation in working life
In connection with working life, more and more ask to be liberated from time
and place in their work. To more and more, this is becoming realistic. UFO
work (Unspecified Floating Objectives) has become more common on most of
the labour market. This means more development orientation and performance
control. The work has become easier and more fun because computer technology
is taking over more and more of the initial stages. Computers are integrated
intelligently in our office surroundings and have in the later years doubled
their speed every fifteen months. Creativity is no longer one percent inspiration
and 99 percent perspiration: the ratio has changed and will change even
more. The exciting work is really gaining ground.
The rise of new industrial countries that export cheap goods is providing
the developed capitalist countries with strong competition. For this reason
most of the physical production of products now takes place in third-world
countries. The difficult and challenging decisions we handle ourselves: we still
increasingly want to be stimulated and to create something in our working
lives. In return we perform more than proscribed by the old-fashioned 35-40
hour workweek. The challenge for companies has thus very much been to
develop organisation forms that on the one hand support the creative urge and
BLUETOOTH is a global standard
for wireless access. The technology
is based on globally available
short-range radio access. It dispenses
with the wires that normally
connect digital units. When two
units equipped with Bluetooth are
within 10 metres of each other,
they can connect without being in
line of sight of each other. A PC
can e.g. send information to a
printer in a nearby room. In the
future, Bluetooth will most likely
be standard equipment in mobile
phones, computers and other
electronic units
UFO WORK is the term for a way
of working that gains ground everywhere.
It can be summarised as
'greater demand for decisions'.
UFO work is development-oriented,
communication-based and
strategic work. It is independent
of time and place. It requires
cross-disciplinary co-operation
and has generalist characteristics.
It includes customer orientation
and adaptation, and often also
loose terms of employment, project
work and performance-related
pay. Consultants, project managers,
product developers, engineers,
communication people, IT
programmers, and journalists,
among others, often do UFO work.
Read more in members' report
1/2003: UFO work

17
ability of the individual and on the other hand converts the particular contributions
to the benefit of the overall goals of the organisation.
The most adaptable companies have succeeded in this. However, a number
of employees still feel discontent with their work because their workplace
hasn't managed to struggle free of historically-determined principles of
organisation and development, including the idea of time as a measure of
the amount of work. The most dynamic employees solve the problem by
starting their own company or becoming free agents - the fastest growing
group on the Scandinavian labour markets. Others instead use their energy
on family life and association activities, where the opportunity for personal
expression is far greater, or they periodically take on dull work in order to
finance more pleasurable work that isn't profitable here and now - but
always is con amore. Working life today has thus become polarised between
dynamic, networking single-person companies - or larger companies that
emulate this structure - and the more sluggish traditional companies.
Branding in 'Create and Brand Yourself'
The monolithic corporate branding (page 6) was around the turn of the millennium
implemented in many companies. The inspiration came from the
really big and global companies that long had used this tactic successfully.
These megacorporations have continued to grow. The thesis that we one day
would have between 500 and 1000 big and dominant commercial stories
held true, and the logic from the book about the Dream Society can thus be
said to have been implemented.
The struggle for market shares has for these conglomerates become a
struggle for stories. The megastories that have won are those that support
the idea of the emotional individualist, and these have become carriers of
culture. Many are stories that already at the turn of the millennium were
favourite examples of management books, e.g. Nike (personal faith in progress),
Marlboro (the personal outsider and rebellion against authorities) and
Harley Davidson (freedom).
"The perspective we see outlined
is thus a future with perhaps 500
or 1000 global suppliers, each
with its own 'country' of stories.
The strong stories can easily
defend their borders while the
weaker ones succumb. They get
'invaded' and conquered by the
stronger stories. The struggle for
market shares becomes a struggle
for stories."
Rolf Jensen in The Dream Society
The Copenhagen Institute for
Futures Studies
The big corporate story has lost
But the big corporate story has still lost over a wide front, especially among
the small and medium-sized companies, which on an international scale
means most Scandinavian companies. The megastories are too strong. Only
companies that have their alliances in place, their megaphones up and charged,
and money enough to do the work properly, have a chance of getting
into the struggle at the top.
The situation is aggravated by the paradox that along with our propensity
for megastories, we increasingly focus on our personal tale and our personal
emotions, which over the years have made everything in between fairly
uninteresting. The emotional and the immaterial may well be a strong driving
force in society, but individualisation is stronger. Life isn't a theme park
that we walk through as passive observers; life is an emotional and personal
development that we like to influence ourselves.
This means that the prefabricated dream, communicated by professional
storytellers, will lose out to the individual's need to tell its own story through
active contribution. The little emotional story wins.
At the same time many companies experience that their values increasingly
are seen as inconsequential. They have too high a level of abstraction and far
too few common denominators to embrace and interest employees and other
stakeholders. CSR (see page 7) is much less a topic than it used to be.
Corporate branding is dying
The idea of the all-embracing corporate brand has thus suffered serious damage

18
in many small and medium-sized companies. We are increasingly concerned
with our own identity. We don't want to assume that of the company.
The trend is strengthened by the now-obvious fact that corporate branding
was an extension of the logic of the industrial society, where companies were
launched to win market shares and make a profit through selling industrially
produced stories and symbols - until they ultimately would conquer the entire
market or share it with a few others. A philosophy that in an increasingly noisy
world requires rigid and directed control of the actions of all employees - in
contrast to the zeitgeist, which demands self-management and influence.
Corporate branding was a reactive effort to recreate the old world's cosmos
through a centralised organisation form; a desire for a return to a time
where the world had man in the centre of things (hence the idea of the company
as a human being with its own identity) or was controlled by a higher
power (hence the idea of Corporate Religion). Thus, corporate branding did
not reflect the organisation form we grew into.
Terror brands!
In time, the managers of small and medium-sized companies realised that they
had been seduced by a systematised and commercial megalomania. Hence, the
years leading up to 2013 offered a paradigm shift for the business community,
and the new successful companies have already heralded their arrival.
As was also the trend around the turn of the millennium, everything outside
the business community is interesting when the business community is
to be described and rejuvenated. The inspiration now mainly comes from
the growing terrorist networks, which in many ways are the most up-to-date
organisation structures in the world.
The successful business organisations today have created peaceful variants
that retain the impact as the source of inspiration. The result is targeted and
flexible brands that are a part of a greater whole and work for a greater
cause; brands that strike in the situation with great effect. And which also
know that their time on earth is limited to a few years, so they don't go into
long-term contracts with employees or customers. This is in contrast to the
old, big brands, which have forgotten why they were born - and thus around
the turn of the millennium invented abstract values that they sought to concretise
through storytelling and other consultant initiatives.
LUNDBECK IN 'CREATE AND
BRAND YOURSELF' 2013
Lundbeck is no longer a publicly
quoted company. We have become
a network-based organisation specialising
in translocal projects (local
projects with global influence) and
using temporally hired project workers.
Lundbeck lets events be the
organising principle, and our branding
strategy focuses on therapeutic
experiences. We simulate an
exciting and challenging life
through activities that involve and
stimulate a therapeutic understanding
of the network's connecting
points. The product portfolio
reflects performance-improving
pharmaceutical drugs that aim at
proactively influencing a human
being's psychiatric and neurological
wellness.
Technology has now made this
possible, and the individual can
see itself as both patient and specialist
by making a precise diagnosis
and prescribing the right dose
of drugs on his or her own. The
relatively simple use of drugs - and
the growing need for them - has
de-tabooed the use of antidepressants.
Lundbeck has become a
company for the young
Pull - not push
The market for the personal, tailored, interactive, and interpersonal has gained
ground in the years since 2003. Massive mass marketing has had hard
times. An accelerator for the development has been our cyber-consciousness,
which we bring into the physical world. On the internet we don't get fed the
information (push), we collect it through active choice (pull). For this reason
it has become increasingly common that products and services that support
the personal creative ability, the feeling of free choice, and the experience of
finding the hidden, gain ground.
For the customers, the new reality means products and services that
intelligently adapt to their needs; which show up when they are needed and
thus often are chosen in the actual situation. The crucial thing is our perception
of making our own choices. Many companies use the model of the ice
cream truck that shows up unannounced on hot summer days; which, according
to the consumer's mood in the situation, is seen as a gift from heaven
or as an irritant disturbing the peace.
The basics and grazing in the paradise of niches
In the retail trade this means that we see a lot of discount and a lot of luxury.
We buy a lot of basic products of reasonable quality and spice them with the
FLASH MOBS is the term for a
new type of happening where the
participants are recruited on the
internet or via e-mails. A large
number of people meet at a predetermined
time and place, does
something unexpected, and disperses
just as quickly. A flash mob
is when 200 people meet in the
lobby of a major hotel, clap their
hands for 30 seconds - and then
disappear without any explanation.
Or when 300 people in fifteen
minutes want to buy cupcakes at
a local pastry shop

19
personal and the unique. All things in between have trouble, so shops that
are based on associations or co-ownership are in crisis. Most people simply
feel that the opportunities for shopping here are too orchestrated.
We still shop in the traditional discount stores, which have been joined
by new German and Polish non-brand stores. And we still shop in speciality
stores for food and wine, which together with a multitude of other niche stores
make up a lush field where we graze according to mood, time and finances.
The Grazing Individual is the challenge of the day and increasingly
makes a paradise for niche companies possible.
Intuition and the self-managed network
Even organisations have now begun to follow the trend of autonomy, creative
urge and latitude. Changes have been made not just externally, but also internally.
Most people have by now realised that management is based on co-ordination,
inspiration and coaching. Around the turn of the millennium many
companies met the increasing complexity of their environment with internal
complexity in the shape of bureaucracy, rules and specialisation on the company's
horizontal plane and hierarchical management constructions on the vertical
plane. Today this is handled trough decentralisation, flexibility and the use
of intuition as a decision-making tool. The power and responsibility has thus
increasingly been drawn away from the management and placed with the individual
employee, who manages him- or herself in a network with other selfmanaged
individuals. The network itself has thus also become self-managed.
ME inc
In a parallel development we now see a powerful growth in true personal brands.
An example from Denmark is the hairdresser Gun-britt Zeller, who around the
turn of the millennium was famous for her chain of hairdressers with the name
Gun-britt, which today has expanded to become an industry that includes a line
of cosmetics and a quarterly magazine. This is ME inc. Behind the scenes of the
true superstars a lot of hangarounds reach for the stars and work hard to get
there. At the same time the field where superstars are grown is expanded so that
we today see personal brands not just from the musical/creative fields.
VELUX IN 'CREATE AND BRAND
YOURSELF' 2013
We are a transnational network
tied together by one strong, overarching
story: 'daylight and fresh
air for better homes'. The story is
the world over a building block in
people's personal stories about
their good lives. Most of our
employees telework and have the
world as their workplace. The philosophy
is 'the best man or
woman for the job'. Commitment
and personal motivation are prerequisites
for satisfaction.
Skylights are still the physical
articles. The home, or rather the
homes, increasingly has become
part of people's expression of
identity. Individualised design and
construction are thus the standard.
At www.VELUX.dk, homeowners
can design their windows
the way they want them; create a
personal expression. The result is
experienced before instalment
through virtual exhibitions, which
the homeowner can 'travel'
through by way of 3D aids.
Through the entire design and
installation process, the homeowner
draws on our global key competencies
Happenings & intelligent storytelling packaging
The lavish, mass-communicating marketing is under pressure. We want
small and personal experiences. With the advent of cheap plastic chips and
inexpensive electronic paper we are beginning to see products with interactive
packaging. Cereal packages show tiny cartoons instead of static images.
The more innovative producers of e.g. coffee use packages with interactive
menus where you can get information about production and processing.
The story is important for our personal narratives. The market for happenings
is growing. Most have chosen to let their Wearable Computers (WC)
give them situational information in their daily lives. If they are at a certain
place at a certain time, the WC tells them what is going on in the neighbourhood.
This makes many companies arrange events that can draw people.
Flash mobs are common and no longer just underground phenomena.
2. The Dream Goes on!
Peaceful coexistence with other individuals is the most important dream for
most people. The increasing focus on terrorism and other threats to society
has made us conscious of all we have to lose - and the dream dies if it continues
to be based on the individual's personal interests. A general, co-ordi-
Tell me the world and
my place in it
1 2
EMOTIONAL AND IMMA-
TERIAL FOCUS /
LOW PERSONAL AUTO-
NOMY
3 4

20
nating community is necessary.
We are met by rapid changes on the technological and commercial fronts.
It seems odd and frightening that plastic cards and keys in most places have
been replaced by handprint and voice recognition. And that the passport control
at the airport is done biometrically through fingerprint reading. Intelligent
systems are practical, but the consequences are hard to predict. Are we moving
towards a surveillance society? How should we feel about the developments?
That we also have to consider all sorts of other matters don't make things better.
Is it environmentally responsible to deposit waste in the earth's crust?
Should we use cloning techniques to help the last group of childless couples?
Are the new 100% safe nuclear power plants really 100% safe?
The typical reaction on the individual level is to seek comfort and fixed
points of reference in the near things and in communities. However, the
classic distinction between 'collectivism' and 'individualism' hasn't been
reintroduced - far from it. For centuries the societal evolution has had as its
goal to liberate us from destined communities. For this reason the individual
things today are the common and the social. We are alike because we all are
liberated. Individualism isn't a choice, but a fate for modern man.
Thus, society today is in the process of changing from one type of individualisation
to another. Today individualisation isn't a goal in itself; it is
the means for participating in the societal process. The goal today is hence
very much to create new communities and references between people.
The public service stations on TV and radio still thrive even though all
now are broadcast digitally and compete with all the world's pay-per-view stations
on the internet. The world would seem totally fragmented if the daily
news broadcasts, youth serials and other popular fiction shows didn't select
and interpret events and situations for us. The formation of experience is
based on the logic of cause and effect, which is communicated and experienced
through narratives about the world and the individual's place in it. For
this reason companies still focus on corporate branding and storytelling.
If we were to single out two types of people, they would on the one
hand be 'the true brand believer' - and on the other hand the NGO, 'the true
anti-brand believer'. It is a case of Logo or No Logo. The battle lines are
drawn sharper than before, but both types bear witness to a need for being
part of a greater whole. In the last decade, the NGO organisations have more
than doubled their number worldwide. It is a matter of 'them' and 'us'.
Anchoring is crucial, not just on the interpersonal level. We try very
much to draw nature and the surrounding society into a holistic whole.
Hence, state-controlled organic farming, nutritionally correct weekly packages
of fruit and vegetables, co-operatives and new organic collectives still
increasingly become a fact of life, just as regional products are valued highly.
BIOMETRICS is the measurement
of biological patterns. The bestknown
example is fingerprinting,
but a number of the body's patterns
can function as unique keys.
Some examples are face, iris and
hand. In the years leading to 2013,
biometrics will be a phenomenon
we all are going to get acquainted
with, e.g. fingerprints used as
passwords to computers. The
technology has in many cases
been developed enough to be
easily implemented. In some places
biometrics has already become
a part of everyday life. In the
London suburb of Newham, 200
cameras have e.g. been mounted
and connected to computers that
through special software can
recognise faces. Read more on
www.identix.com
THE DREAM GOES ON
THE CORE STORY
Family chronicles and multi-generation communities
Individualisation has liberated us, and the movement is now followed by an
opposing trend, a focus on community and togetherness. Family and community
are increasingly given equal status with the individual's personal
interests - or rather, the personal interests are defined as founded in the
community's consistent and coherent past-present-future constellation.
In many ways the family will come to reflect the idea of corporate branding
- and vice versa. Just as storytelling becomes more founded in companies,
the family chronicle increasingly functions as 'family branding'. The
family thus resembles the monolithic brand, which is characterised by its
internal and external cohesiveness, homogeneity and strength (see page 6).
The multi-generation community is one of the models of living arrangements
that have won a lot of terrain since the turn of the millennium. It
makes it possible to draw on all the help and togetherness offered by an
The relationship between brand
story and man: The ‘core story’ is
the ideal. The big story about the
company and the world, which
also contains a little story about
the individual’s place in the big
picture

21
extended family. However, we are not talking of true communes, since the
move towards the communities doesn't have to be ideologically determined.
The challenge for most is to get organised in a way that leaves room for both
freedom and togetherness.
The architecture of most new housing signals community with fellow
human beings - and with nature. For instance, composite materials are used
to signal a union between sustainable regionalism and a preference for local
construction traditions and materials. Solar cell energy is a primary source
of energy - now with cells built into normal window glass. At the same time
new types of fuel and methods of recycling are developed in order to ensure
the environment.
Vacations also strengthen the family chronicle. They are often planned
through the digital newspaper's reader offers of tours with guides. Pure
relaxation vacations are often supplemented by a movement towards greater
interest in and empathy with areas that suffer. Hence 'Danida Vacation' has
been introduced as a new way of travelling, where the point is to do humanitarian
work in beleaguered cultures.
The renaissance of the national story
Among the big stories in society - which increasingly are represented by
megastories from multinational corporations - the story of the nation has
survived in the Scandinavian countries. This has happened at the expense of
the support of supranational collaborative efforts like EU.
Around the turn of the millennium the nation as a unit was declared
dead and gone, destroyed by global politics, the international economy and
the universal spread of culture through the new media. But the diagnosis
turned out to be false.
In the time leading up to 2013, most moderate politicians on the traditional
political playing field realised that the extreme parties shouldn't
monopolise the idea of the nation. They acknowledged that they for too long
had been poor at speaking to people's emotions and that economical/rational
questions had characterised the debate too long. So the popular national
story was re-actualised in most parties. Through focusing on both the traditional
symbols, like flag, royalty, passports and money, and the more unofficial
ones like national songs, the national soccer team and national traditions
like the Danish folk high schools.
Independent schools and other value-based schools are still thriving
alongside the municipal schools, in which the make-up of pupils is regulated
centrally in order to reflect society as a whole. The folk high schools have
experienced a true renaissance and increasingly inspire business organisations.
The folk high school is the ultimate value-based organisation, and
today we see many former folk high school principals at top posts in business.
The principal and solidly founded values have displaced the personal
and pragmatic.
The company as a greenhouse
The new generation on the labour market is the best educated ever. Most of
those that now have gained a foothold in the companies have furthermore been
planned children. They have been given space for personal development in their
families, and they are used to there being few dogmas and authorities in their
lives - and that everything is open to democratic debate. At the same time they
are used to socialising since most have spend a long life in social institutions.
The work form most in demand is thus the one that best synthesises individual
efforts with a common project and a common framework. Project work
and teamwork thus are the work forms par excellence. This also means that
there is much less talk about a zapper mentality on the labour market. New sur-

22
veys show that most newly educated would like to stay in one company for a
long time, and that they prefer companies that can function as safe greenhouses
for their individual ambitions. Hence, in spite of the focus of earlier governments
on entrepreneurship and innovation, there has been no significant
growth in new companies. Entrepreneurialism can easily be exhibited in steady
jobs, and the idea of self-management is losing support. This work form only
leads to stress and frustration.
At the same time there is continued focus on the companies' social sides. A
good image and good marketing aren't enough. CSR (see page 7) is thus still a growing
field and is still included in many companies' overall branding strategies.
As a replacement for the death of the big stories (see page 6), the companies'
stories collectively form a new culture- and society-bearing element. This
increases the potential power of the companies, since the company's formal
story about itself simultaneously determines an informal story about how the
company perceives the surrounding world. Hence, companies attempt to create
associations that reach beyond the individual brand and instead relate to the
company's organisational practice.
Branding in 'The Dream Goes On!'
The idea of organising companies around easily understood, simplified and
homogeneous values has continued from 2003 to today. Generally speaking,
corporate branding is moving towards big monolithic brands with a single
name and a single visual style. The idea is still to create a big story about the
employees, the company and the world; to create a fixed point of reference and
a strong culture. Hence, marketing, communication, organisational theory, and
management are still combined in a holistic structure in many companies.
One for all!
At the same time, alliances between the stories are made more often than
ever before; something that was heralded with the growing trend of co-branding
even before the turn of the millennium.
Simultaneously Endorsed Identity (page 7) becomes a far more pronounced
strategy. It is a matter of creating synergy between the company's different
brands. The particular product branding that dominated around the
turn of the millennium in the shape of Branded Identity (page 7) is abandoned
by most small and medium-sized companies. The trend is that companies
neither can nor should hide behind the product. The company is the
product. Only the really big conglomerates can maintain Branded Identity,
primarily because the brands have critical mass and an organisation structure
that makes them companies in and of themselves.
LUNDBECK IN 'THE DREAM
GOES ON' 2013
Lundbeck has become an employee-owned
company with a transregional
management structure.
As a consequence, Lundbeck has
been split up into smaller companies,
determined by therapy traditions
in the individual regions.
Lundbeck's branding strategy is
tied to the dream of the good life
with a special focus on CSR and
sympathetic actions. The traditional
opinion-formers have evolved
from being professional specialists
to becoming family and
friends, something that also influences
the practical implementation
of the branding strategy.
Branding activities are no longer
solely targeted at doctors and
specialists, but are rather training
programmes of shorter or longer
duration, aimed at future opinionformers.
These will typically be
the care-minded persons of the
family. Patient associations have
now become the central stakeholders,
and strategic alliances that
ensure the feeling of community
are central. Lundbeck has become
the favoured company of the
nuclear family
Brands in the global superleague
Branding thus works fine in extension of the logic of the turn of the millennium.
For this reason we see more and more take-overs and alliances and get
more and more heavyweights with economies of scale. It is a case of eat or be
eaten. The global superleague is ruled by upwards of 1000 universal megabrands.
The primary products for these conglomerates are the industrially produced
and emotionally emphasised stories. They are communicated strategically
and professionally to precisely selected segments. For the consumer, the
stories are articulated in traditional lifestyle goods. Thus, designer sunglasses,
brand scarves and luxury bags are still good products. The logic from The
Dream Society is very much alive. The growth markets are the markets for
opinions, love, friendship, authenticity, belonging, and care.
Brand Extension and the logic of the fashion designer
The global megabrands are ruled more and more by a 'logic of the fashion

23
designer'. Trend spotting is of crucial importance. Signals from subcultures
and interest groups are thus very rapidly implemented in both products and
communication. This is a bubble-up effect. Trends that used to be underground
phenomena are commercialised and made mainstream.
At the same time it is still imperative to be able to transform the signals
to products that are affordable to normal consumers, exactly as was the case
for the big fashion houses, which around the turn of the millennium not just
sold Haute Couture, but primarily based their earnings on off-the-rack
clothes and heavy production of perfumes, sunglasses and bags.
For this reason more companies today than before base their earnings on
business that is derived from their core services or core products. Brand
Extension is a key word. It is a matter of capitalising on your strong relationship
with the consumers by making new products or services. The product is
subject to the relationship, and of course Mercedes Benz can sell luxury television
sets to rich people around the globe. For this reason B&O is soon going to
face competition from an unexpected direction, it is rumoured.
Distribution Power
Intense work is still being done about influencing the consumer at the moment
of purchase. Hence the efforts of creating power through branding of the work
is supplemented with efforts of creating power through distribution. For this
reason more and more brands have their own in-store shops in department stores
or create universes of sensation in the shape of stores that only sell one
brand, the so-called single brand stores.
The logic of the theme park is gaining ground, not just in the retail trade. It
is e.g. no longer uncommon to buy your new car directly at the assembly plant
in Germany where the family spends an entertaining day - and in the end drive
home in their brand new car. That the links between producer and customer in
this way are derailed is a growing trend.
Push logic and ad creep
The traditional vertical market system is retained for most companies (see
page 7). Most marketing takes place in a 'push logic' where the customer is
stimulated to consume by emotional advertising based on our dreams of
community, togetherness and happiness. The advertisement noise hasn't
reduced since the turn of the millennium, and it gets ever harder to penetrate
with a message. For this reason the communication modes are constantly
being developed and refined.
The sceptics cry warnings of advertising's gradual and stealthy entrance
into all spheres of our society: ad creep. 'Wildposting' (posters on scaffolding
and buildings). Internet banners and spam mails. 'On-hold advertising'
(commercials in the phone while you wait). Hidden advertising in movies
and TV series. Ads projected onto sidewalks and ads in the bottom of golf
holes. It was a spectacular sight when Coca-Cola recently projected their logo
onto the full moon with a powerful red laser - but it was too much for the
majority. People like to be seduced, not raped.
VELUX IN 'THE DREAM GOES
ON' 2013
We still work from a corporate
branding logic where customers
and employees are involved in a
common mission: better homes
for people. The story of the company's
beginnings is still a driving
force: "We are daylight engineers"
was the message in a sales letter
from 1945. Our values remain the
same: 'mutual respect' and 'due
care with the resources'. For this
reason we keep both environmental
and social accounts. The overall
expression is communicated
strategically and consistently
through the general VELUX brand.
The customers seek inspiration in
daylight centres that combine
sensual experiences and exhibition
of daylight-related home products.
We are involved from the
beginning to the end.
The home contributes to describing
the family's value community.
We do all we can to create
the optimum setting. Daylight and
fresh air create increased wellbeing;
the more, the better. Nature
comes into the home - and the
home comes out into the nature
with more and more windows on
the slanted roof
Branding is management
Next to the brand super league there still is an undergrowth of strong national
and regional brands. There is plenty of room, and more and more companies
learn the tactics from the big ones. Everything can be branded. So the local,
emotionally emphasised stories are actively cultivated, as are stories directed
narrowly at a specific group of people, e.g. the employees of a company.
More and more companies have acknowledged that branding isn't
something just for the marketing department; that the responsibility for
branding lies with the CEO and the managers. And that a consistent brand

24
isn't created through advertising, but begins with the company as such. The
philosophy is that the company should be based on the communication - and
that all expressivity should be in tune with the overall strategy.
The company as an integrative system
Since branding basically is a matter of relationships with people, sociologists
and psychologists have made their entrance into both companies and the
consultant market. Hence, the favoured branding consultant today isn't educated
at a business school. There is a focus on the company's role as an integrative
system. A system that tells a meaningful big story about a common,
overarching goal of the work through the years and days - and at the same
time a little story about the place the individual has in the big story.
Precisely like the stories we long have surrounded ourselves with in all other
fields, e.g. the story of the Danish women's handball team around the turn of
the millennium: "The team won gold, and Anja Andersen's unique performance
was her spectacular goals." For this reason storytelling is still a concept
that is relevant for the business community.
Tribal
'Tribal Marketing' is also growing. This is a marketing strategy that seeks to create
social groupings and net communities around a product or a service. The
solution here is targeted marketing. Instead of big, public advertising directed
at everybody, the advertising is done more discreetly in the environment of the
target group: in magazines, in clubs, on cafés, and on selected websites. The
secret is to appear as part of the milieu and thus to be welcomed by it. Not least
because of an increasing disgust with ad creep, this strategy is very attractive
for strong brands. Tribal Marketing requires a high degree of two-way communication,
and companies have to be keenly aware of what is going on in the
milieus and to respect the values of the milieus; they have to appear genuine.
Identity belongs to the individual -
not the company
3. The Rational Individuals
1 2
Individualisation continues with undiminished power, and we are situated
in a time where the individual's emotional sides have to be wooed far less
than before. We express ourselves innovatively through that which directly
and measurably points back to us. Our investments, emotionally as well as
financial/consumer-oriented, require measurable returns.
The critics talk about a society that has lost its powers of cohesion. They
point out that the Scandinavian nations have lost the factors that used to tie
everything together as a whole. That we lack a common centre that holds
everything in place. They especially mention the weakening of the nation
state and the traditional political spectrum and the continued growth of
single-issue movements.
However, most people are comfortable in a world where the only constant
seems to be change. The identity of an individual isn't a constant, but a very flexible
quantity, and the societal developments also lead to challenges and evolution.
The talk about the turn of the millennium about 'an identity in crisis' thus
isn't something that occupies sociologists in the same way. The Rational
Individuals generally see the developments as challenges and opportunities
rather than as threats. The traditional and more static frames of reference are
simply replaced with new and far less static adhesives between individuals.
The logic of the free choice has gained strength since 2003. We have
thus seen increasing privatisation of the public sphere, with the individual
3 4
RATIONAL AND
MATERIAL FOCUS /
HIGH PERSONAL AUTO-
NOMY
THE RATIONAL INDIVIDUALS
THE ISOLATED STORY
The relationship between brand
story and man: The ‘isolated story’
is the ideal. Identity belongs to the
individual - not the company. The
story of the individual is distinct
from that of the organisation

25
moving from being a citizen to becoming a consumer of social products offered
by private companies. The welfare states of Scandinavia are thus increasingly
supplemented by user charge. With pragmatic liberalism as the reigning
zeitgeist in the Scandinavian countries, the individual has been given
greater responsibility over his or her personal life.
Focused leisure time and the family as stakeholders
Surveys in the past decades have finally proven that people in balance with
themselves are better qualified on the labour market. And, most important
of all, more productive. Given this evidence, it has increasingly been acknowledged
that the family is one of the company's most important stakeholders.
The companies that work consciously to improve this matter fare better.
Fresh surveys show that it is possible to increase productivity by as much as
a third by creating optimum conditions for the individual employee. The
result is a far more flexible framework.
Having a family isn't a matter of course, but having children is increasingly
seen as a right. It is a part of our personal evolution, and common sense besides.
Our society is threatened by increasing expenses to a generation of seniors
that live longer and longer. For this reason, insemination and adoption have
ceased to be severe expenses for the individual and has become exceptions to
the rule of more user charge. At the same time, heterosexual couples no longer
have any unofficial stamp of approval as being the best-suited parents. No rational
proof has been given to show that one type of family is better than others.
The old boundaries have vanished. The majority tries to treat leisure
time, working hours and family life as a holistic construct - though naturally
with the individual as the nexus. Leisure time activities thus serve a purpose
that can strengthen the individual in his or her diversity of abilities. Leisure
time and vacations are thus for the majority often structured around a goal,
e.g. cultural background or further education. Stimulation and learning are
the primary navigation parameters in a complex world.
The type of travel that best suits the individual of 2013 AD is - along with
the Grand Tour - camping life, which has experienced a true comeback after a
period with a rather worn image. Flexible, unbounded and cheap, it lives up to
the demands of the time for individual needs and value for money. Hence, the
pre-packaged trip is no longer the preferred type of vacation for Scandinavians.
Analogously, night schools experience a renaissance as places where individuals
can broaden their horizons and test themselves in hitherto unfamiliar situations.
And the possibilities are manifold, since virtual reality allows you to visit
Japan one night and the future the next. The combination of on the one hand
individualisation and on the other hand rationally determined needs pulls
towards a mode of living where the individual gets full value from each square
metre. Technology and refined processing of materials optimise the components
of construction, which become intelligent in order to adapt quickly to the
individual's personality and self-chosen mode of expression. The rooms of the
dwelling become multifunctional. The technology is there for that purpose, and
there are no limits to individual activity in a technological wonderland.
Private cars are seen as a human right. Tests are being done at approaches
to major cities with special rails onto which the cars can go, after which
computers take control for a while and brings the car rapidly and safely to
town. This system combines the freedom of action of the personal car with
the train's quick, unhindered transportation to the city centre.
Sub-politics in the civil society
The development in the later years has shown that the national borders continue
to be challenged by the global economy. The national political systems
have lost influence to the big multinational corporations.

26
The continued growth in the number of interest groups and single-issue
movements - and their increasing influence in civil society - has created subpolitics:
an alternative political sphere where politicking is done in non-formal
connections. Social movements and consumer boycotts play important roles
here, often across national borders. Just as the organised labour movement
was a decisive political factor during industrialisation, these far less formalised
movements are seen as an important factor today. At the same time we have
far more referendums about matters that interest the population.
While the national parliaments thus receive less and less interest, the
support of EU as a supranational institution has increased. Standards can
with advantage be decided in common - as long as the individual nations
still are allowed stricter rules than the common ones. But the support has
never become love. EU is a marriage of convenience where the advantages
outweigh the disadvantages, nothing more.
Integration of research and business communities
Working life and private life are integrated markedly at the moment, since
personal satisfaction is gained through the ability of the individual to move
freely between the traditional categorisations of the societal spheres (working
life, leisure life, religious life, political life, cultural life).
The specialised single-person company is the ideal of the time.
Beginning your working life in a steady job is less popular than before. The
focus of previous governments on entrepreneurship and innovation and on
building bridges between research and business has started to bear fruit.
With self-management as the most important parameter, more and more
now organise and perform their job functions on their own, and directed
goals have thus increasingly become the co-ordinating element. Most UFO
workers have thus become free agents (UFO work, see page 16).
The connection between business and research communities has furthermore
had the effect that the newest organisation theory has become
integrated in the business world. More now listen to the theoreticians while
the stream of 'I did it my way' publications has lessened. The management
books that are most read are based on practical research. They are synthesises
of substantiated theory and best practise.
The flowering of single-person companies has forced most of the larger
trade organisations to redefine their roles and structures. The best heads
have become increasingly hard to recruit, particularly because most of them
aren't born in Scandinavia, but in India, China and other non-western countries.
For this reason the number of companies can't be thought of as static
units with fixed employees that go to work at fixed times in fixed places.
Time, in the sense of timing, is still crucial. The crucial change in the business
community in the last decade has been the move towards a virtual mode
of organisation, which still is rooted in time, but far less in space and in physical
presence. The work is thus increasingly handled in global networks, and for
this especially virtual reality has been an important prerequisite.
Branding in 'The Rational Individuals'
After decades where branding has profited from the emotional wave, a wave of
new objectivity sets in towards 2013. At the same time, the focus is removed
from the occupation with the unambiguous commercial community that characterised
the time around the term of the millennium in the shape of corporate
branding and rigid company values.
For most people on the labour market the philosophy is that communities
are good, but dynamic networks are better. The personal network consists not
just of colleagues, but also of friends, family and other personal connections in a
personal holistic universe where the traditional boundary between work and lei-
LUNDBECK IN 'THE RATIONAL
INDIVIDUALS' 2013
Lundbeck is still a quoted company,
but the management is no longer
able to use a short-term business
strategy. Today Lund-beck
sells therapeutic solutions where
the potential of re-authenticity has
been rediscovered through a diverse
selection of therapeutic solutions.
We still have close connections
to doctors and specialists,
but now in a form that goes across
the traditional division of disciplines.
Psychologists, alternative
therapists, etc., have thus gained a
crucial voice in Lundbecks branding
strategies, which anyway are
inspired by life's tough and naked
realities.
The branding activities have
turned into a debate forum where
the most serious and well-functioning
solution is backed. Lundbeck
has through this strategy managed
to cross generation gaps, and
through its diverse selection of
solutions, the company has retained
a sympathetic rational status
among doctors and specialists.
Lundbeck has become the
favoured workplace for academics

27
sure time is corroding. Values are correspondingly personal and are continually
negotiated in the eternal exchange of information between actors in the individual's
environment. Categorical truths are only for the narrow-minded. And if
a company's values are so broadly stated that we all can agree about them,
we might as well not have them. Communication is difference; everything
else is increasingly perceived as 'hot air'.
The little rational story wins
Hence, the conquering story is the little story about the product that makes a difference
compared to other products or really changes the buyer's possibili-ties.
The brands that have survived the change to the rational paradigm are those
that in their marketing have created a correspondence between performance
and story. Brands that have kept their internal logic from the turn of the millennium
and still are successful are, among others, Louis Poulsen, B&O, Avis (We
Try Harder) and Maersk (punctual diligence). Stories about value for money.
In this respect it marks a return to the old ideas about the product as the
hero (or the buyer as hero through the product). Though with the difference
that we increasingly are critical of the real and functional product advantages.
The spectacular staging of the consumer's needs, which we saw in the
past, is on the wane along with the emotional argument. Especially the new
generations on the labour market are very conscious about what requirements
they have - and how to fulfil them. The 80's mentality of our childhood
is still in fresh memory.
The old market structure in decline
Around the turn of the millennium most companies were set in a way of
thought that very much was historically based. Back then, the market structure
for most companies could be fit into a vertical model where the movement
was from producer to consumer (see page 7). The trend now is that
this market concept and the logic behind it are in decline.
The new successful companies increasingly dissolve the boundary between
'consumer' and 'producer' and organise their company like a network
based on a decisive will to create transparency and frictionless communication
possibilities. The movement is increasingly going from user to producer,
and all involved parties can follow the process.
VELUX IN 'THE RATIONAL
INDIVIDUALS' 2013
Our organisation is based on the
market structure of the new age.
Things increasingly revolve around
the customers. Their individual
product needs trigger our production
- and it is difficult to see
where the company begins and
ends. Customers, suppliers, producers,
and distributors are all
part of the same network. They
find each other through project
folders on the internet. The brand
of VELUX is today far better adapted
to the individual stakeholder
groups. Also for the employees,
which have optimal conditions for
individual development and working
from home.
We have always had Product
Power, but now we can set aside
far more resources for development
and optimisation of our core
products. For instance, new functional
windowpanes have seen the
light of day. They can do far more
than just insulate against heat and
cold - they can e.g. create energy
for the home through solar cells.
The ongoing developments constantly
vitalise the story of VELUX,
which now increasingly focuses
on the original basis: innovative
engineering
Mass customisation
At the same time far fewer standard products are produced and far fewer
fixed services are sold. Today nearly everything is produced directly from
the end-users desires and specifications. Mass customisation has truly replaced
mass production. The consumer is no longer a passive consumer, but an
active co-producer - a prosumer.
It becomes ever easier and cheaper to give the products you buy individual
characteristics. The general availability of print on demand technology
e.g. provides remarkable choices when buying a book. Should the book be in
small or large format? Hardcover or paperback? Printed on cheap or quality
paper? The bookstore has become a portal for all the book publishers of the
world, which in return no longer need to bother with printing. Many electronic
stores have also begun using 'gadget printers' that provide on-the-spot
production of e.g. mobile phones, remote controls and pocket calculators
according to the customer's specifications.
Branding has come full circle
In this way the history of branding has come full circle. With corporate branding
the focus was directed at the company after a period with the focus on the
product and the corporate brand (see page 5), but now we have come all the

28
way back to before industrialisation. Back then everything was produced on a
personal basis and according to individual needs. The crucial difference is that
today, we have eliminated most of the barriers of the past. The expenses are
kept down through technology and industrial production. Personal craftsmanship
is made partly obsolete thanks to robots and machines. The time of a few
products per time unit is past, since the production methods of the industrial
age still are used. So today the advantages of pre-industrialism have been combined
with those of industrialism while the disadvantages largely are gone.
Product Power - the renaissance of the product
Along with the little, rationally emphasised story, the focal point of most
companies in marketing has once again become the product advantage.
However, the crucial difference is that this now is highly varied in breadth,
not just in depth. Differences supplement advantages. This invites an innovative
approach to the product. The decisive value becomes the variation,
and the technological opportunities are incredible. For instance, one of the
great focus areas of the time is psycho-acoustics. Corn flakes that crunch the
right way. Car doors that close with a nice sound rather than a hollow clank.
Engines that sound like a Harley or are entirely silent.
For this reason, the price is no longer legitimised and decided mainly
through reference to the brand's immaterial advantages. Where the focus used
to be on Brand Power, it is now increasingly about achieving Product Power.
The company as a network
For business leaders the development from a focus on the company's operation
to a focus on the network's information flow means that it has become easier to
co-ordinate the needs of the customers with the actual production. This means
shorter delivery times, less storage and more time for development.
For most companies the network philosophy additionally means further
development of the triple bottom line (see page 7), which gained ground
around the turn of the millennium. This idea turned out to be one of the
future. Stakeholding is now a key word, and a majority of companies now do
far more work targeted at - and increasingly also in dialogue with - each different
group of stakeholders.
This means that the stakeholders in and around these far-sighted companies
aren't met with a clear-cut corporate brand with a fixed standpoint.
Instead of collecting everything in one unit, the goal is now decentralisation,
adaptation and flexibility. The company thus has many faces and many voices
according to the situation.
Personal agents
Thus, the brand reality today for most companies is rationally determined.
This means that electronic advertising only is accepted according to specific
criteria defined by the individual, something that already was feasible electronically
before the turn of the millennium.
Products and services are increasingly purchased because they fulfil a
functional need. For this reason, e-trade has gained ground everywhere, even
in areas that don't naturally seem suited for it.
Many have acquired digital agents that find the necessary products.
Based on comparable and measurable criteria, almost all products can now
be bought on the electronic market places. The possibilities are great, and
there is a greater focus on certification and merchandise description than
before: they form the basis for the rational choice of a given product.

29
4. The Logic of Great Solutions
Community is freedom in a world
undergoing rapid change
Through decades the responsibility for the human life was increasingly placed
with the individual. The goal was free choice from all shelves. The focus
was very much on the individual rather than the collective. This trend has
reversed today. Individualisation may have liberated us, but it also made the
world less comprehensible and less familiar from day to day. Today it is
increasingly acknowledged that personal liberation doesn't necessarily
equate true liberation. For freedom includes having to make choices. In contrast,
communities, where several things are predetermined, liberate time
and energy for the important things. Community equals freedom in a world
undergoing rapid changes.
At the same time, it is increasingly acknowledged that the human potential
is best expressed collectively rather than singularly. The whole is greater
than the sum of the parts. With society's new rationalism and focus on
results and demands for performance, it is in most spheres of society necessary
to have rationally determined co-operation in order to get safely
through the days. Earlier developments have led to greater population density,
an increase in electronic traffic, information pollution, and a growing
range of activities.
Computer technology is ubiquitous today. It supports the trend towards
co-operation and solutions. Partly on the micro level where technology is a
personal tool that makes it easier to navigate in our society's hyper-complex
structure and find a suitable adaptation. Partly on the macro level where
technology is incorporated in both public and private spheres and makes cooperation
easier.
Biometry has become commonplace (see page 20). Fingerprints have
replaced pin codes. In the public space, we encounter facial recognition and
identification through biometric codes. It is debated in the media if we are
becoming a surveillance society, but it doesn't lead to any fear of Big Brother.
Most people don't feel important enough to justify any surveillance paranoia.
It would be like suspecting that everyone who owns binoculars use
them to spy through their neighbours' windows, something that obviously
isn't the case. Technology is an advantage to society, and if your conscience
is clear, you have nothing to fear. Our society demands rational and meaningful
solutions.
At the same time, we view the obsession of earlier generations with personal
values and personal emotions as irrational and rather comical variations
of the universal truths. "All artists are individual and creative - so why
do they all wear black?" We aren't as different as we like to believe. Today
the focus is on rationally determined and universal values and truths.
1 2
3 4
THE LOGIC OF GREAT
SOLUTIONS
RATIONAL AND
MATERIAL FOCUS /
LOW PERSONAL
AUTONOMY
THE NON-STORY
The relationship between brand
story and man: The ‘non-story’ is
the ideal. The company is a rational
system. The individual’s personal
story is less important than
considerations for the totality
Strategic family life
The nuclear family is the foundation par excellence of the individual.
Couples work close together to achieve common goals, and they share the
work more evenly than before. Children are the centre around which society
revolves. Europe's population is reduced compared with other parts of the
world; and as a logical consequence of society's systematisation, we have
seen initiatives from central authorities to increase the population. Various
means are also employed to make large families attractive. Increased child
subsidies, good maternity leave arrangements, and more effective childcare.
People try to organise themselves out of the problems. Stress reduction
and mutual understanding are basic concepts. The challenge is to choose between
all the available opportunities for individual expression. It may be
something of a luxury problem, but in 2013, it is one of the greatest threats

30
against family life. For this reason the idea of strategic family life has become
commonplace. With the help of consultant agencies, more and more
families work out values, rules, timeframes, and task budgets. The goal is to
create a counterpart to the identity-formation of working life, which primarily
focuses on the individual.
Individual luxury products are increasingly rejected, especially the
immaterial ones. The framework that the nuclear families of the 1990s had
built their lives around was too tight. By joining up with other families, it
becomes possible to realise the simple living outside of the city without risking
isolation and loneliness.
Technology has thoroughly changed our homes. The price level has
dropped. The demand for e.g. solar panels and central vacuum cleaners has
increased significantly. The integrated computer that was launched in 2003
has with recurring modifications conquered the market. It has become a central
unit in the home. Wireless computing makes it possible for the intelligent
systems to speak together.
New construction is based on the IKEA model. Larger components and
cheap standard solutions built from proven and relatively good materials.
The houses thus rather much resemble earlier ones. However, thorough local
planning has meant that new housing increasingly is equipped with automatic
heating and energy regulation, wireless networks and intelligent aids. We
have thus come close to having the intelligent home. The internet is no longer
viewed as an antisocial medium: quite the contrary, since most find their
partners here. The chat rooms of the internet have thus achieved the status
of spheres of intimacy.
Electronic road pricing has been implemented. All cars are equipped with
GPS and wireless transmitters, enabling a system to see where you drive and
when. It has now become more expensive to drive in the city than in the countryside,
and more expensive to drive during rush hours than at other times.
Vacation and leisure time is primarily used for common relaxation, but
less for individual adventures. This has meant a dawning renaissance for the
broad common denominators of charter tourism.
Anti-Americanism
National politics have lost ground to international politics. The consensus is
that the results of national politics simply are too insignificant. The population
has in general embraced the idea of EU as a sensible and rational counterpoint
to the hegemony of USA and as an ideologically sound project that can ensure
peace and continued progress in Europe. EU is considered a self-chosen community
where the nations don't mind giving up some of their autonomy in
return for a part in the greater goods that can be found in the community.
The importance of EU as an economic counterweight to USA, and by
now also Asia, shouldn't be underestimated in a world where dollars, yen
and euros have overtaken nuclear missiles as being the most effective weapons.
De Gaulle's idea of 'a Europe of Fatherlands', based on co-operation
between sovereign states, is no longer deemed feasible. A united front can
only be created if the nations abandon sovereignty.
The faith in EU as an alternative to USA has caused a wave of anti-
Americanism and anti-individualism. USA is seen as the western world's cultural
experiment - which failed! Stress and depression is tied to individualism,
which is seen as a social disease from earlier times. The experiences
from the communist nations are now left so far behind that communal ideals
can be promoted without being mistaken for emotional communism.
The rational working life
The rational wave continues on the labour market. With the use of electronic

31
tools, it has become possible to organise the workday more sensibly and e.g.
work three concentrated days and take the next four days off. Weber's bureaucracy
ideals are brought out, polished and served in a lighter version.
The basic idea is still Weber's classical one: there has to be rational and measurable
criteria for work and advancement. Exams have once more become
the criteria for getting a position after a period where companies sought
people that matched the company spirit, culture and values. The tasks have
become increasingly specified and are performed on the basis of formalised
rules and guidelines. All are treated equal. That is the most just and the most
effective - and self-management is not a subject that is being discussed.
Another consequence of the rational wave is division of work.
Unemployment isn't an optimal condition for the society, especially when
many are overworked. Hence, advanced calculations are made for how much
each has to work through his or her life. There are obviously some rules to
prevent you from depositing all your work in your most unproductive years.
It is e.g. possible to counterbalance overtime, but not to save up 'undertime'.
Health expenses are reduced this way, since stress used to be a common
cause of death.
Branding in 'The Logic of Great Solutions'
The years around 1990-2005 were dedicated to soft values and the big stories.
In the years leading up to 2013, a new movement takes place, and out of the
rubble of the dream society, new communities are growing. The focus is on
rational solutions for rational people. Stress has long since reached the top of
WHO's list of the greatest health dangers, and this has necessitated functional
solutions for the complexity-burdened human being. The technological development
is still the driving force.
Branding as internal company tool
Corporate Branding thrives best when the externally emotional expressivity
is toned down in favour of the company as a meaningful system for the
employees. Branding directed internally contributes to create a distinction
between 'us' and 'them'. It creates a sense of belonging and is increasingly
used as a pedagogical tool for supporting the feeling of community. It is of
course expected that words are followed by action. A happy employee is an
innovative and productive employee. Employee care thus increasingly
extends to include the employee's family, which is involved more in the company's
life - just as the company is involved in the families' lives.
Holism is a key word, and the philosophy of CSR (see page 7) is increasingly
incorporated in practice. It is e.g. not uncommon for companies to
provide financial support for family therapy if there are problems. In this
way, the company plays an increasing role in the civil society, and responsibility
for the employee in his or her entire life situation is becoming common,
as per the traditional Japanese model. Markets in growth are the markets
for safety, stability and comfort, with solutions as the central parameter.
External Corporate Branding becomes obsolete
Corporate Branding increasingly becomes obsolete in the public spaces - at
least where it refers to the company that has created the product and hence
guarantees the quality and communicates comfort and recognition. Digital
agents can effectively scan the market and find the products that best fit the
price. Consumer trust has thus moved from trust in brands to trust in the
digital agent. The agent is seen as an extension of our self. We thus increasingly
reject marketed emotionality and staging of the individual's life situation.
Digital agents may be analytical, but they can neither feel nor act intuitively.
LUNDBECK IN 'THE LOGIC OF
GREAT SOLUTIONS' 2013
Lundbeck is still a quoted company,
but today the state owns the
majority of the stock because of a
desire to support and guide promising
private research. We now
have a politician as the chairman
of our board of directors. We have
entered into strategic alliances
with companies that have pharmaceutical
drugs with supplementing
indicators on our products -
you can thus buy a 'three in one'
package that deals with all symptoms
and side effects. The target
group is still doctors and specialists,
who come to multi-conferences
where they can also meet
Lundbeck's former competitors.
The big pharmaceutical companies
now work together to combat
competition on generics. At the
same time, they divide the market
between them and thus create
therapy monopolies.
Lundbeck has chosen to purchase
smaller research-based
companies, partly to keep on growing,
partly to expand the product
portfolio of partial solutions to
symptoms. Our branding activities
still have a corporate profile, but
more in relation to creating alliances
with global representation.
Lundbeck has been awarded the
most rational state-within-the-state

32
A world of digital agents
The battle for consumer loyalty is now fought with digital agents as complexityreducing
factors. This challenges product branding. Families have systematised
their consumption. They get groceries delivered automatically when they run
out. Why spend time in supermarkets? In this fashion, the retail trade undergoes
a minor revolution. More products are bought electronically and delivered
directly to the customer, and this has made some of the physical supermarkets
redundant. Efficiency creates freedom. The tyranny of choice in the name of
freedom and spontaneity only creates frustration. Perhaps we are soon going to
reach a point where we trust the agents so much that they can handle the entire
purchase situation by themselves, including payment. They can e.g. order vacations
on the basis of information in your digital calendar.
A revolution in retail trade
More importantly, RFID (Radio Frequency ID) technology in most physical
chain stores have in recent years made checkout assistants obsolete and
made theft impossible. All articles are equipped with the replacement of the
barcode, the individualised radio ID marker, and a detector at the cash register
scans the articles. For customers this means that they don't have to take
their purchases out of the shopping cart, and lines at the checkout are a
thing of the past.
The RFID technology holds even more advantages for the store. Stock
control has become far easier because the system gives early warnings about
sold-out articles and sell-by dates - and misplaced articles can quickly be
identified. This is all possible because the RFID technology identifies each
individual article rather than just its category (e.g. skimmed milk).
Giants of solutions
The trend from the turn of the millennium of co-branding and Endorsed
Brand Identity (page 7) continues. At least in the sense that companies increasingly
focus on how their company, services or products can be used in
connection with other companies, services or products.
We are moving towards global giants of solutions that combine functional
needs and structures the best ways possible. IKEA is a major source of
inspiration for creating complete solutions. More and more companies abandon
the idea of themselves as producers of a product. For instance, many
pharmaceutical companies cease to be pill-makers and instead see themselves
as health companies. They have thus expanded their focus from treatment
to include prevention of all kinds.
At the same time, more companies considered their products in prepackaged
connections with other products, the way Intel and Microsoft did
at the turn of the millennium.
Vertical power and the company as a tool
Around the turn of the millennium, we experienced increasing formation of
chains in the retail trade. That trend continues today. It is a matter of controlling
the entire vertical market system (page 7). If this succeeds, the customer
belongs to the company from beginning to end without distracting
intermediaries. Hence the company is increasingly also branded as distributor
of the branded solutions. The direction is still from producer to customer.
At the same time, net-based shopping associations have flourished, with
digitalisation and electronic networks as driving forces. The idea is that the
more that come together to buy a product, the cheaper it will be. Companies
thus increasingly organise themselves as electronic tools that support this
movement. The goal is to own the customer in a given category.
'Personalised pricing' is common.
VELUX IN 'THE LOGIC OF GREAT
SOLUTIONS' 2013
Our brand isn't necessarily tied to
the individual products, but to the
individual solution. We have entered
into strategic alliances with
strong partners in production as
well as marketing. Our products
thrive as ingredient brands, and
our employees benefit from the
renewed resources internally,
where the VELUX brand remains
the cohesive power.
The new home is a ready-tomove-into
solution, created on
electronic drawing boards in a
networked effort between the suppliers.
When the customers build a
new house, it is often done on the
basis of personal specifications.
The electronic agent chooses the
suppliers that best live up to the
specifications and which are most
compatible with other components
in the house. The service life
of the house is shorter than before
because the electronic development
takes place faster than before.
In return, quality and trust in
the suppliers are still important.
The interdependency between the
house's individual systems is high
- just like human relationships
PERSONALIZED PRICING. Offering
different sales prices for the
same product to different customers.
The prices are typically calculated
on the basis of the total
relationship between customer and
company, which is easily calculated
electronically for internet companies
like Amazon.com
ADBUSTERS Media Foundation is
a Canadian anti-branding movement.
It describes itself as "a global
network of people who want to
advance the new social activist
movement of the information age.
Our aim is to topple existing
power structures and forge a
major shift in the way we will live
in the 21st century"

33
Personal branding on the wane
The neo-rational focus on communities is liberating for a person that has been
bogged down by a forced demand for originality; a demand that must be considered
absurd given that we are alike in all important areas. There are no
remarkable differences between our psychological requirements, so why pretend
that such a need exists? I-cultivation and the self-created man are on the
wane. Today we tend to see the earlier focus on values as hollow words. It was
very much a reaction to the 1980s trend where the good life was tied to material
riches and solo runs: spoiled children hunting personal values.
Mindfucking, Brandalism & Adbusting
Anti-Americanism flourishes. Some of the old monolithic brands are hit hard.
At the same time, there is a widespread resistance to advertising in public spaces.
The combination of 'brand' and 'vandalism' is obvious: 'brandalism' is a
commonly used word. The Canada-based anti-branding movement Adbusters is
popular in Scandinavia. Today it is one of the world's most powerful NGOs, and
its purpose is to the stop the 'mindfucking' through advertising and marketing
that the founder, Kalle Lasn, around the turn of the millennium accused of
being mankind's enemy number one.
Advertising can be measured and weighed
Creativity is no longer the core value of advertisement agencies. The new
technology in the market system has led to a new logic in markets that used
to be heavily laden with symbols. Physicists and statisticians are hired to
maximise customer exposure on the basis of calculations and models of
human flow - and to calculate the optimal communication with digital
agents. The agencies that service the digital agents have field days. They are
expensive intermediaries, but they ensure increased sales.
The significant change in consumer behaviour also means that the market
for immaterial luxuries is shrinking. The relevance of the symbol as an
argument has thus increasingly come under pressure, since the functional
product qualities, directed at the agents, increasingly have become the deciding
factors.
Automatic customer data
Already around the turn of the century, it was possible for a store to register
all card-based purchases over extended periods, but it was illegal to do so.
However, the customers could also benefit from the stores knowing their
needs, so the regulations were slackened over time. It has now become normal
for shops to offer their regular customers special deals based on their
consumption patterns. If the customer e.g. starts to buy diapers and baby
food, the supermarket provides the customer with offers of cheap baby
swimming in the local swimming bath. If another customer buys lots of
expensive wine, the store offers the customer membership of the store's
wine club. In this way, the special relationship has been restored that used to
exist between grocers and customers in the societies of the past (see page 5),
where the grocer knew the particular tastes, needs and family relations of
each customer. A new interface has been constructed.

34
Literature
Adriansen, Inge: "Nationale symboler I Det Danske Rige 1830-2000". Museum Tusculanums Firlag 2003
Antorini, Christine; Dahl, Henrik & Goldschmidt, Lars: "Det ny systemskifte". Gyldendal 2001
Bech, Ulrich: "Risk Society". Sage Publications 1992
Bresson, Lene Rikke: "Familiestrategi giver balance i tiden". Jyllands-Posten April 2002
Dejgaard, Søren: "Fra virksomhed til netværk". Ledelse i Dag #47, 2002
Dybdahl, Frank & Janns. Casper: "Stakehold!". Børsen 2003
Grønborg, Morten & Larsen, Gitte: "En fremtid uden corporate branding". Fremtidsorientering 3/2003
Hansen, Søren Schultz: "Sub-branding på internettet". Fremtidsorientering 3/2003
Holten Larsen, Mogens & Schultz, Majken: "Den udtryksfulde virksomhed". Bergsøe 1999
Haug. Ingrid: "Det usynlige vidunder - en filosofisk & æstetisk undersøgelse af pervasive computing". 2003
Jensen, Rolf: "The Dream Society". McGraw-Hill 1999
Klein, Naomi: "No Logo". Picador USA 2000
Kunde, Jesper: "Corporate Religion". Børsen 1997
Levann, Allan: "De unge, de dygtige og de værdifulde". www.kommunikationsforum.dk 2003
Nielsen, Bo: "Pædagogik og frisat ungdom". www.uvm.dk 1997
Nietsche, Friedrich: "Die Frøhliche Wissenschaft". Volume II of Friedrich Nietsche; Karl Sclechta, Munich 1955
Novo Nordic: Environmental and Social Report 2000
Morsing, Mette: "Corporate Branding Basics". www.kommunikationsforum.dk 2003
Morsing, Mette & Pruzan, Peter: "Stigende focus på virksomheden sociale ansvar". www.kommunikationsforum.dk 2003
Olins, Wally: "Corporate Identity. Making business strategy visible through design". Harvard Business School Press 1989
Qvortrup, Lars: "Det hyperkompleske samfund". Gyldendal 2001
Qvortrup, Lars: "Det lærende samfund". Gyldendal 2001
Ryan, Maureen: "All in a flash: Meet, mob and move on". Chicago Tribune, July 11th 2003
If you want to go on
The scenarios in this report are mainstream scenarios for
branding in the years leading up to 2013. They can be used
in your company's work with marketing, communication and
management. Scenarios can be made on the basis of any
uncertainty factors. This includes company- or professionspecific
uncertainties and more narrowly defined factors. The
goal is to reduce complexity and uncertainty through a systematic
presentation of possible directions of development.
CIFS regularly arranges the course "Futurist for a day"
where the scenario method is explained. The course prepares
the participants for working with scenarios in their own
companies. CIFS additionally has decades of experience
with tailored, dialogue-based scenario processes, where
reports like this one are developed with the individual company
in the nexus
Contact Axel Olesen at axo@cifs.dk for information about "Futurist for a day" and Kristina L. Søgaard at krs@cifs.dk
if you want to know more about dialogue-based scenario-processes and other possible projects

35
H. Lundbeck A/S (2003)
Lundbeck is a pharmaceutical company that works to improve the life quality
of people suffering from neurological or psychiatric disorders. Is represented
by a main office in Denmark and about 45 subsidiaries worldwide. The company's
primary revenue derives from the anti-depressant Cipramil. In 2002,
Cipralex was launched as an improved alternative. At the same time,
Lundbeck marketed the Alzheimer's drug Ebixa.
In recent years, Lundbeck has worked with a corporate branding strategy
that in part has dealt with communication and in part has tried to revitalise
the company's management strategy in order to let the company's values have
crucial influence on strategic decisions. As something new, an Endorsed Brand
Identity (see page 7) is used in order to get a tighter connection between products
and company.
VELUX A/S (2003)
VELUX is an international company that brings daylight, fresh air, view, and
solar energy into people's everyday lives. VELUX is a part of VKR Group,
which has more than 9.000 employees in more than 40 countries. VELUX produces
and markets skylights and related products. "Where there's light, there's
life" - the philosophy is that simple. VELUX also produces electronic controls
and solar panels for mounting on rooftops. Daylight and fresh air are indispensable
for a good interior environment and good living conditions for people.
VELUX products create better homes for people because light creates life.
A strategic goal is to turn VELUX into a corporate brand. Corporate branding
in VELUX is a process that expresses the company's brand philosophy
and promise to the customers, anchored in the company's vision and values.
The focus isn't simply on communication, but on all that is VELUX - people,
products and services. This philosophy - and high-quality products - has globally
turned VELUX into one of the strongest brands in the field of construction.
The VELUX brand has also achieved a level of recognition that is rare
and unusual for construction materials.
Members Report # 3/2003: "Branding Tomorrow.
Organisation, communication and marketing in selected futures".
Developed by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures
Studies (CIFS). This report is solely intended for members of
CIFS. CIFS's member's reports are published quarterly. The
next is called "Ten Trends towards 2010"
Text and concept: Helene Nordtorp Jørgensen (research
assistant), Martin Kruse (research assistant) & Morten
Grønborg (project manager)
The study group 'Branding Tomorrow': Kate Andersen
(TopDanmark), Michael Rasmussen (VELUX), Morten Paustian
(Lundbeck), Anna Frellsen (McKinsey), Anne Skare Nielsen
(thnk), Margrethe Dal Thomsen (Leo Burnett), Helena
Nordtorp Jørgensen (CIFS) & Morten Grønborg (CIFS).
Texts in the report about VELUX and Lundbeck are written by
Michael Rasmussen and Morten Paustian, respectively. The
texts are not necessarily indicative of actual work being done
in the respective companies
Professional contributions - thanks to: Klaus Æ.
Mogensen (CIFS), Thomas Mølgaard (Scanad
Udviklingsbureau), Søren Riis (CIFS), Maj Søltoft (CIFS), Niels
Bøttger-Rasmussen (CIFS), Henrik Persson (CIFS), Kaare
Andreasen (CIFS), Kristina L. Søgaard (CIFS), Ingrid Haug,
and employees at VELUX and Lundbeck
Research: Maj Sølvtoft (CIFS) og Klaus Æ. Mogensen (CIFS)
English adaptation: Klaus Æ. Mogensen (CIFS)
Layout: Gitte Larsen (CIFS)
Graphic design: Martin Johansson (Nxt)
Cover: Martin Johansson (Nxt)
Printing: Jungersen Grafisk aps
The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
September 2003
www.cifs.dk

MEDLEMMER
3. DIMENSION
ADECCO A/S
ADVANCE
ADVOKATFIRMAET SELMER DA
ANDERSEN-FARMER KOMMUNIKATION A/S
ARLA FOODS AMBA
ASTRA ZENECA DANMARK A/S
AT WORK
BANG & OLUFSEN A/S
BANKINVEST
BARILLA ALIMENTARE S.P.A.
BDO SCANREVISION
BRAND THEATER
BRUGGER & NIELSEN A/S
BRØDRENE DAHL A/S
CARL BRO A/S
CEREALIA DANMARK A/S
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE A/S
COLOPLAST A/S
COPENHAGEN CAPACITY
COWI A/S
DAGBLADET BØRSEN A/S
DANFOSS
DANISCO A/S
DANMARKS LÆRERFORENING
DANMARKS RADIO
DANSK BYGGERI
DANSK LÆGEMIDDEL INFORMATION
DANSK TRANSPORT OG LOGISTIK
DANSKE BANK A/S
DANSKE SÆLGERE
DDB NORGE
DELOITTE & TOUCHE
DSB
ELKRAFT SYSTEM A.M.B.A.
ELSAM
ELTRA
ENEMÆRKE & PETERSEN A/S
ENERGI MIDT
ENVISION REKLAMEBUREAU A/S
ERHVERVSSPROGLIGT FORBUND
FALCK REDNING
FERRING PHARMACEUTICALS
FINANSFORBUNDET
F.L. SMIDTH & CO.
FONDEN REALDANIA
FORSVARSAKADEMIET
FREDERICIA KOMMUNE
FREDERIKSBERG KOMMUNE
FREDERIKSBORG AMT
FRITZ HANSEN A/S
FTF
GILDE NORGE BA
GJENSIDIGE NOR ASA
GJENSIDIGE NOR FORSIKRING
GLAXOSMITHKLINE
GLUD & MARSTRAND A/S
GREEN CITY DENMARK
GREY KØBENHAVN A/S
GRUNDFOS A/S
GUMLINK A/S
HK
HOVEDSTADENS UDVIKLINGSRÅD (HUR)
HSH NORDBANK AG
HTH KØKKENER A/S
HØYRES STORTINGSGRUPPE
ID KOMMUNIKATION A.S.
IKEA ICSAB CONCEPT
JYSKE BANK A/S
KMD
KOLDING ERHVERVSUDVIKLING
KOLDING KOMMUNE
KRISTIANSAND KOMMUNE
KØBENHAVNS KOMMUNE
KØBENHAVNS LUFTHAVNE A/S
LANDBRUGSRÅDET
J. LAURITZEN A/S
LEO BURNETT GROUP A/S
LK A/S
LOWE
H. LUNDBECK A/S
LÅN & SPAR BANK
MALMÖ STAD
MARITIME DEVELOPMENT CENTER OF EUROPE
MASKINMESTRENES FORENING
MAX SIBBERN A/S
MEDICON VALLEY ACADEMY
MEJERIFORENINGEN
M.F.K.'S ALMENE FOND
MICROSOFT BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
MKB FASTIGHETS AB (PUBL)
MONTANA MØBLER A/S
MOTOROLA A/S
NOKIA DANMARK
NORDEA BANK A/S
NORDISK KELLOGG'S A/S
NORSK GALLUP
NORDVESTBANK
NOVO NORDISK A/S
NYCOMED DANMARK
NYKREDIT A/S
NXT
ORACLE
PBS A/S
PFIZER A/S
PRESSALIT A/S
PSYCCES
PUBLICIS REKLAMEBUREAU A/S
R. FÆRCH PLAST A/S
RAMBØLL
REALKREDIT DANMARK A/S
RECOMMENDED IS
REGION SKÅNE
REPUBLICA COPENHAGEN
ROM
SAMPENSION ADMINISTRATIONSSELSKAB A/S
SARA LEE SOUTHERN EUROPE, S.L.
SAS DANMARK
SATAIR A/S
SCA HYGIENE PRODUCTS
SCANAD UDVIKLINGSBUREAU
SCANDLINES
SCHULSTAD BRØD A/S
SIEMENS BUSINESS SERVICE A/S
SOFTCOM SOLUTIONS
SONOFON A/S
SOUL FACTORY BRAND CONSULTING
STATOIL DETAILHANDEL A/S
SYNOPTIK HOLDING A/S
SÖDERMANLANDS LÄN
TDC A/S
TEKO CENTER DANMARK
TELIA
TINE BA
TOPDANMARK A/S
TRYG I DANMARK
TRYGGHETSRÅDET
TRÆLASTHANDLERUNIONEN (TUN)
UNISYS
UTDANNINGSFORBUNDET
VEJDIREKTORATET
VEJLE KOMMUNE
VKR HOLDING A/S
VM BROCKHUUS EJENDOMME
WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN
ØKONOMI- OG ERHVERVSMINISTERIET
ØRESUND ENVIRONMENT
ØRESUND FOOD NETWORK
ØRESUND IT ACADEMY
ØRESUNDSBRO KONSORTIET
ÖRESUNDSKOMITEEN
AALBORG TEKNISKE SKOLE
ÅRHUS KOMMUNE
ÅRHUS UNITED