Traditional brands are losing value. The market place is filled with brands in demise, brands that consumers know and like, but do not buy. At the same time, a new type of "cult brands" is emerging, brands that are racing up the global brand value ranking. Facing this new kind of competition, even traditional giants, such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble, are changing their advertising strategies. Based on the new brand competition and communication channel dispersion, we investigate why and how advertising needs to be redefined: Forget awareness and liking, it is all about interest and activity!
The battle over consumer franchise is increasing. This is nothing new. Each year additional products and brands hit the market and advertising expenditures increase. But what is new is that, the usual brands are not winning anymore.
A brief look at the latest Top 100 Global Brands ranking list (cf. BusinessWeek, 2004) reveals that the brands that have subscribed to the top spots on the list, for years, are still there. Due to decades of enormous investments in traditional advertising, brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Disney, and Nokia still manage to cling to their dominant positions. But they are starting to lose their grip. In the 2004 ranking, the top ten brands are losing value. Meanwhile, new type of brands are racing up the list.
The top climbers in 2004 were Apple, Amazon.com, and Yahoo. They are representatives of the new type of brands that BusinessWeek call cult brands. They are cult brands because the essence of the brands is not the company or the product; it is the cult around the company or the product. It is the consumers, their community around the brand, their involvement in the brand, and their activities in conjunction with the brand, which make the brand valuable. |
