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By the end of the next decade, as the pace of consumer change accelerates and social media matures, a stronger, deeper linkage between consumers and brands has driven brands to change more quickly too. For example, brands have shifted their messaging or morphed key attributes to compete effectively in a world of viral memes. Some new brands grow über-fast but are ultra-short-lived.
What’s driving this forecast…
- Brand interactions are conversations. Brand interaction is evolving past simple message bombardment to productive interactions.
- Big experiences. Brands will leverage big data to design and deliver engaging experiences.
- Consumers as co-branders. Consumers are effectively partnering with marketers in establishing and promoting brands.
- Consumers set terms. Customers, not brands, will increasingly direct the consumer-brand interaction.
What this means for companies…
- Becoming brand-nimble. If brands change more quickly, brand management decisions that were once earth-shaking will become more routine, and management processes will need to change to provide greater flexibility at lower management levels.
- From brand-as-asset to…? Brands have been core company assets, often stable for decades. As brands become more fluid, companies will need to find other ways to measure (and account for) their intangible assets.
- Pop-up brands. A “pop-up brand” could use customized advertising and finely honed social media techniques to go viral with its target audiences.
- Dynamic competition. Fluid individual brands will create a rapidly shifting, even dizzying competitive landscape, challenging companies to navigate complex, ever-shifting terrain.
For more on the future of brands and branding, see our report The Future of Brands 2030.