Branding In The Digital Age

The internet has upended how consumers engage

with brands. It is transforming the economics

of marketing and making obsolete

many of the function’s traditional strategies

and structures. For marketers, the old way of

doing business is unsustainable.

Consider this: Not long ago, a car buyer

would methodically pare down the available

choices until he arrived at the one that best

met his criteria. A dealer would reel him in

and make the sale. The buyer’s relationship

with both the dealer and the manufacturer

would typically dissipate after the purchase.

But today, consumers are promiscuous in

their brand relationships: They connect with

myriad brands—through new media channels

beyond the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s

control or even knowledge—and evaluate a

shifting array of them, often expanding the

pool before narrowing it. After a purchase

these consumers may remain aggressively engaged,

publicly promoting or assailing the

products they’ve bought, collaborating in the

brands’ development, and challenging and

shaping their meaning.

Consumers still want a clear brand promise

and offerings they value. What has changed is

when—at what touch points—they are most

open to influence, and how you can interact

with them at those points. In the past, marketing

strategies that put the lion’s share of resources

into building brand awareness and

then opening wallets at the point of purchase

worked pretty well. But touch points have

changed in both number and nature, requiring

a major adjustment to realign marketers’ strategy

and budgets with where consumers are actually

spending their time.

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