There’s some evidence to suggest that brands globally can expect to have shorter and shorter half lives. But do the same dynamics apply to digitally-based brands that have applied to the brands that were built “physically” in the past?
When brands think of digital or social as “media” they err when they approach consumers as they do with other types of media. This is the wrong point of departure.
People live first and foremost in the digital world, and the battle for their attention and loyalty exists there. The digital world, aka social web, is powered by human media. To realize the promise of what all digital can do, brands need to understand that digital is not a “thing”.
Numbers matter, but different numbers matter differently. To me, one of the great confusions in marketing is extent and value:
About a month ago, I wrote an article on “The Thin Brand Line.” Truth be told, lines everywhere are thinning. Even at SXSW, perhaps a glimpse into the future is inferred by this quote from Elizabeth Dole, Entrepreneur in Residence at Dell, “There was a whole convergence between [the Film, Music, and Interactive parts of the conference], reflecting that to consumers, it’s really the same thing now.”
