Looking to the future of branding

Six foundations for building future-proof brands

In the future, which has already taken root in the now, organisations, brands and services would exist, sustain and grow only based on the following parameters:

Ethics

The ethical compass of organisations and brands would play a large and very crucial role in its survival, acceptance and growth. The benchmarks by which companies would be held would be high and would get higher. Communication that do not match actual business practices will be pulled up. The integrity of promise to delivery and perception to reality would be critical. A brand’s sincerity in accepting its errors and failures, its genuine efforts to rectify and its basic sense of fairness would play a huge role in its appeal. This would be the case irrespective of whether it would be a small local brand or a large worldwide brand. Money will not be able to buy loyalty, promotions and PR will not be able to salvage lost equity, star power will not help in cover ups. Ethics would play as important a role as the USP of the entity or brand.

Realness

Authenticity would become a critical element in growth going forward. Easy fame, lazy and indifferent value systems and representations would be named and shamed. Brands, however large, will fall from grace if they do not get real and relatable. Relevancy to an end customer clubbed with authenticity will be a key. Slick, empty brands and brand building will steadily die amidst a lot of similar noise. Only real brands will last. It would not matter in what medium, and how many times one may spread the messaging, and how multi-pronged an approach one might take to reach the consumer, true consumer insights would be forced to come from a sense of realness rather than through complicated algorithms.

Brands, however large, will fall from grace if they do not get real and relatable.”

Sustainability, inclusivity and accountability 

Going forward brands will be forced to become transparent in how they manufacture, what they do with waste and how they sell and how they innovate. All the innovation in the future would entail sustainability as a key ingredient. Unless it is eco-friendly and accountable, brands will be brought down either through legal challenges or through public outcry or outright rejection. Gender rights, human and child rights, wildlife rights, environment rights, waste management and all such aspects of corporate citizenship would be demanded from brands if they want to succeed. Empty CSR pitches that neither have any connection with the brand nor reflect long-term engagement on the issue from the brand would be booted out.

Consistent engagement based on common values 

Measurability would go way beyond clicks and numbers, target groups and SEC parameters with brands being forced to genuinely connect to audiences and customers as real people with unpredictable patterns and actual issues. Consistent engagement would become a critical element in keeping such connections active and thriving and the brands more closely tied to the consumer. Word of mouth, social media and influencers will continue to play a critical role if non-commercial in their intention. Privacy and intrusion of privacy will become a critical element, as targeting based on personal information would come at the brand’s cost i.e. a customer would only share their private information if they desire and would also expect to be compensated for the same.

Local sensibilities with global expertise

Even very large brands and players would be forced to go into smaller and smaller spaces and adapt to local cultures and sensibilities to flourish. Forcing a global, fits-wherever culture would spell the death of the brand. The systematic approach of standardisation that large brands employ will be accepted only for aspects of values and quality standards and not in aspirational aspects of the brands. With an increased interest in youth worldwide rediscovering their roots, revival of traditional and cultural relevancy will be a key. Engaging and employing local skills, culture, art and creativity would be a key aspect to thriving amicably. Going vernacular will become a key as communication in native languages would increase with higher need for engagement.

"Forcing a global, fits-wherever culture would spell the death of the brand."

Demand and supply

There would be more supply than demand, and to command a premium on pricing, innovation and quality would play a larger role than mere brand building. As innovation cycles will reduce and make marketing windows unviable, it will force entities to go back to fewer products and longer innovation cycles, creating a desire and demand with increased wait time. People will buy less and demand more, weigh their choices and reject more. Price will become a very challenging aspect as freebies and promotions will increase among brands for survival. It would result in fewer larger players and greater engagement of larger players with smaller ones who share synergy. Collaboration would become a key aspect for survival for both larger and smaller players. Aggregation would become more viable than standalone innovation and brand building.

The brands of the future will have to be humble, learn and unlearn with their customers and stay real and engaged. Arrogance and indifference and ignoring the above would just bring forward their expiry date.

The future looks a lot simpler than the chaotic present. In the churn of today, the promise of building brands tomorrow based on the above looks exciting.

Have any thoughts on this depiction of the future? Let us know @codimag


A version of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn as “The Future of branding”.

Image: d26b73/Flickr

Srividya Srinivasan

Srividya Srinivasan is CEO of Rasters Media Integrated. An entrepreneur of two decades, Srividya Srinivasan is a communication strategist, a film maker and published author and poet. Rasters Media Integrated is a small, niche advertising and creative house currently operating out of Bangalore.