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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 It seems odd and frightening that plastic cards and keys in most places have been replaced by handprint and voice recognition.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-
Page 2 and 3: Contents: Part I: Branding. The sym
Page 4 and 5: 4 Part I Branding. The symbol as ar
Page 6 and 7: 6 The brand as corporate metaphor T
Page 8 and 9: 8 Two central uncertainties for bra
Page 10 and 11: 10 and adventure. Services that ver
Page 12: 12 The precise future to come may n
Page 15 and 16: 15 1. Create and Brand Yourself Lif
Page 17 and 18: 17 ability of the individual and on
Page 19: 19 personal and the unique. All thi
Page 23 and 24: 23 designer'. Trend spotting is of
Page 25 and 26: 25 moving from being a citizen to b
Page 27 and 28: 27 sure time is corroding. Values a
Page 29 and 30: 29 4. The Logic of Great Solutions
Page 31 and 32: 31 tools, it has become possible to
Page 33 and 34: 33 Personal branding on the wane Th
Page 35 and 36: 35 H. Lundbeck A/S (2003) Lundbeck

Branding.

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