Are Brands Dead?

With the rise of short lived digital experiences, the removal of coke from Cost Co and the reduction of major name brands from the shelves of Walmart, the question on many people’s minds is: Are brand names still powerful?

At present, major name brands are putting more attention on creating utility for their consumers and straying away from big budget commercials. An example of this is Pepsi deciding to not run any super bowl ads this year and instead invested that money into charitable giving driven by the consumer. Yet, is this really a mark of straying away from inflating their brand? In the end, we are going through hard economic times and companies are being judged more than ever when looking at what they are doing for their consumers. Pepsi can with hold from doing brand ads and give the money away instead because they already have such a strong brand clout from previous years.

In the future, many are predicting that brands will have to move away from heavy branding because consumers are wanting to live within their means and see it reflected in media. Yet, shifting from showing an extravagant life to one of means isn’t the removal of brand. Branding can just as easily be about living frugally or responsibly. Toyota is an excellent example of this from leveraging their minor green traits they have created a cult following and even in spite of their major recalls, polls consistently show that their consumers still believe in them. By investing in their customer base, their customers are willing to forgive them.

In the past, the great Marlboro Friday scare in 1993 created the declaration that the brand name was dead. Yet since 1993 strong brand names have been established or reestablished to have created stronger cult followings than we have seen in the past including Target, Toyota and Apple. So is this latest declaration another fable or a true shift in advertising?

Although this economic climate could mean the death to some brands often it’s the ones that forget that they need to continue to grow, change and innovate to stay on top. Just because the brands are moving into the digital space doesn’t mean the brand is dead but simply that it is yet again adapting for the better.

The Asset of Being You

One of the hardest lessons for me to learn, as a young art director, was that your personality and quirks often can prove to be an asset.

I began my working career at Target and Starbucks. Both are good places to work and both are pretty strict corporations that ask that you leave your personality at the door and put on the brand face. When taught to, on a daily basis, remove your personality when at work, it becomes difficult when asked to express myself regularly at an agency.

Although not every career expressly wants you to be yourself on a daily basis, no one wants to work with someone that is dull or rude. When interviewing for design and art director positions at agencies, I’ve found that the agencies that were always heavily interested in me were the ones in which I was very relaxed and simply being my normal, odd self. By being someone that is naturally happy and spreads humor to others I have an asset outside of my ability to create good work and pitch it well to clients, I have the ability to help create a stronger team through being myself.

Yet, the hardest lesson to learn for those that have radically different or unusual personalities is the necessity to do what I call, “Easing people into your crazy.” By with holding much of your personality initially to gauge others, find your niche and allow for your personality to gradually come out, you become a natural fit. On the other hand, being extremely out there from day one can often create apprehension, unease and the feeling of being ostracized from the group.

So in the end I’ve found the best practice is to show your personality, craziness and all; but, don’t jump the gun (ease people into your oddities).

My Greatest Source of Inspiration

When looking back at my previous blog posts, I’ve found that I talk a lot about inspiration.

In the end, as a creative person inspiration is key to continuously moving, reaching for the nearly unattainable and getting you going. Often that inspiration will come from a related field; but, I’ve found, for me, that some of my strongest inspiration comes from outside of advertising.

The individual that has inspired me the most is the writer/philosopher, Ayn Rand. She wrote a lot on the behalf of supporting laissez-faire capitalism, the positive attributes of selfishness, anti-religion and being pro-individual. Yet, the thing that consistently grabs me the most is simply that she clearly and ardently fights for her point of view.

In a sea of being politically correct, speaking between the lines and passive aggressive culture, she consistently cut to the core of what was being discussed and eloquently stated her point of view. She never backed away from her ideals and never apologized for her position on issues. Even though she wasn’t a native English speaker, she worked herself to death writing and rewriting drafts until she produced Fountainhead (read by my most American high school students) and Atlas Shrugged which has been judged to be the second most influential book in human history (second only to the bible).

Yet, with even a figure that I so deeply admire, I still wonder to myself how much of it is the ideals themselves and how much of it is simply excellent persuasive writing?