What Is a Brand in the 21st Century, Anyways?

No, your eyes aren’t lying to you. That’s The Bee Gees…advertising…tape cassettes. That was then. Think about now with me. If I say brand…today…can you even define it anymore? In a way that makes sense, for this age, this century, right now? Try. I bet you’ll find it harder — perhaps a lot harder — than you think. It’s not as simple as…the above. Not anymore. We used to say that a brand was a “promise.” They’ll still teach you that in B-school. But it’s not, anymore, at least not in the old sense. The idea back then — and this originated in the Mad Men days, was that you’d buy the product or service to discover if it kept it’s promise. You can see exactly this model in the ad above. Even better if someone like The Bee Gees endorse the promise. But now? You can check out if a product or service lives up to it’s promise a thousand times a day, in nanoseconds. I’ll give you my own example. I make music — just for fun. I have a little studio at home. I can spend hours on YouTube or countless forums checking out what people think of new products. Guitars, synthesizers, studio gear like EQs and compressors, new plugins for digital audio. There’s a whole new career based on all this — the music influencers, people who are carving out a living doing the…what I imagine is a pretty fun job…of reviewing musical instruments and associated stuff. Sure, a brand is a promise, still — but only in a weak sense anymore. You don’t have to interact with the brand ever again to find out if the promise is true. <a href="https://eand.co/what-is-a-brand-in-the-21st-century-anyways-fe3e684d2ab4">Read More</a>