Commercial brands are currently going through some big changes, and all we have to do, to see proof of this, is to open our Instagram feed. How many brands on our feed are ones we have known since childhood, and how many are completely new to us? Once you take a look, you will notice that most of them are brands we have never even heard of. Today’s market comprises a few long-standing brands, and a massive wave of startups, and each of these startups has one objective: to breakthrough with their innovative idea and revolutionise the market.
So, even if we were to launch our own startup, and even if it were to become totally revolutionary, it would still be swept up in this enormous wave and have to wrestle with its many competitors, to make itself known to the public. This battle for visibility can no longer be fought with advertising or buying media space, because the market is saturated, and the quality of the product or service itself is not enough to break through. The only way to fight – and ultimately win – is to bet everything on the brand.
By carefully examining the success stories of the new, big players on the market, of the ones that have really managed to get themselves noticed, and have their customers hooked, we will discover that the new formula to break through and stay at the top, is based on brand names. This doesn’t mean branding in the traditional sense, which entails curating an image and developing strong logos and graphics to go with your exciting new name, it actually goes much further. Building a brand today involves a company digging much deeper into who they are, what they believe in, and why they have chosen that particular product. This process should be done even before launching a product on the market, and will mean investigating the history of the company’s founders, their business ethics, and the needs of their future customer.
Old fashioned and somewhat static branding used to be standard procedure, and was acceptable to any audience, but nowadays, to grasp people’s attention and make them fall in love, a company must focus on their intentions, values, transparency, and dialogue. Gone are the days when a company can put forward an attractive monologue to entice potential customers: today the customers dictate the direction of the market, and in doing so, they expect and exchange before they give their approval. In return, they offer a select handful of companies their unprecedented loyalty, and true devotion that can help these companies ride the crest of the wave and stay on top.
