Branding.

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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.