The (recently necessary) evolution of Branding

Branding was developed to allow consumers to differentiate among products in a category so that they could more easily choose the ones that were likely to deliver the benefits they were looking for.

Manufacturers used branding to tell consumers how the manufacturer’s product differed from similar products. Procter & Gamble wasn’t the first, but they’re a good example. Soap was soap, until they started telling people that IVORY and its sudsy brothers and sisters provided particular features at specific and consistent levels of quality.

But how to know that manufacturers were telling the truth?

It would be expensive and time consuming for a consumer to test all the different products available for a particular use, and so for many years consumers were willing to take manufacturers’ promises at face value, and make their selection based on those promises. If a product failed to live up to its branding, then maybe that was just a fluke. There was no way to tell.

After all, what was the alternative? Personally and repeatedly test every brand to see how well the promises were being kept? That wasn’t (and still isn’t) very practical. And there wasn’t any way for consumers to band together to share their experiences with given products.

During much of the recently concluded 20th century, manufacturers (of services as well as products) came to rely on pounding their brand messages into consumers via newspapers, magazines, radio and television. In the face of relentless advertising, if a product didn’t live up to its branding, consumers were as likely to mistrust their personal experience as they were to mistrust the manufacturers’ promises. And again, what was the alternative?

Then came the internet, and in the 21st century we’ve entered a new world for branding. Consumers “get it,” but I’m not sure that the change has sunk in yet for many manufacturers. You see, CONSUMERS NO LONGER HAVE TO TAKE A MANUFACTURER’S WORD FOR HOW GOOD THAT MANUFACTURER’S PRODUCT IS. Anyone with access to the internet (and that is rapidly approaching “everyone”) can now look up any major product (and most minor products!) to see what experiences people have had with that product.

This is a profound change. Almost overnight, promises (which had become vastly overinflated and greatly undersubstantiated in many cases) have become the starting point instead of the final word for consumers. Consumers may use a manufacturer’s promise to pre-sort candidates, but it is no longer the final word. The final word comes from the reported experiences of other consumers, reported across millions of websites, and instantly accessible via incredibly efficient search engines.

As a result, it is time for branding to evolve. Manufacturer promises are as important as ever, but the product MUST live up to those promises. First time. Every time. Exactly as consumers should have been able to count on (but couldn’t) for the past few decades. Because if the product doesn’t perform for someone in Iowa, consumers in California, Florida, and Maine will know about it.

Advertising can no longer compensate for products deficiencies. Manufacturers who survive and thrive in the future will be those who develop meaningful differentiation that can be consistently delivered. Does that describe your products? If you feel like your branding needs to be working harder in this brave new world, feel free to give me a call, and we can talk about it.