It’s often not hard to see why other brands have died – especially after the fact. There’s also one interesting and abiding constant in all the casualties. What kills a brand, more often than not, is what it lacks rather than what it does: conviction; energy; value; humility; cash; discipline; imagination; focus…
Yes, that kind of born again. And while I don’t mean that we all literally should start talking about Jesus, brands can learn a lot from people who have found meaning and deeper relevance in time of crisis. After all, the social media revolution has brought crisis to anyone relying on traditional branding tools.
Evgeny Morozov is a scold. Little if anything about the direction in which digital technologies are moving these days meets with his approval.
One of the consistent findings from ad pre-testing and tracking research is that bits of ads go missing from people’s memories. A key reason for this finding is that our brains can’t deal with too many concepts at one time. I am not just speaking for myself, there is plenty of evidence that our conscious work space is limited, and things that don’t make it to our conscious attention, get forgotten.
One of the intriguing aspects of understanding brands is that one must be prepared not just to balance but to actively address the contradictions that humans happily live with.
