After the Brand what??
By Harish Bijoor
The brand is here. What next?
January is as good a month as any to do a forecast piece on where the brand movement is heading. If “What next?’ is the question, here is a clue.
Traversing down memory lane into the rough and tumble world of brands, one sees the distant past. A time when there were no brands at all! A time when the brand meant the first slap of hot iron slapping a live cow, writhing in pain! Just to distinguish one cow from another.
From the commodity world at large, emerged the brand. As commodity morphed to brand, a cusp-category was but natural as well. A category we call quasi-brands. A category where recognition and identity were two parameters just about happening!
With the first brands hitting the shores of the Western world, the brand phenomena was slated to become bigger and bigger. Till it enveloped the whole world at large! As it has now!
What next? Let me peek into the crystal ball and fathom out an answer that makes sense.
A few brands in very, very few categories will go on to become super-brands. But just as there are only four super-models in the world, and the rest of us are like what we are, there will be only a handful of brands that make it to the league of the bold and the beautiful.
Hundreds of thousands of brands will therefore remain brands. But is this brand movement forever? Does it have a lifespan at all?
Though many a mind of the past believes the brand is forever, the concept of forever itself is a wee bit different than we understand it.
The brand movement is slated to head to a finish line in the medium to long-term future. Look at the trends that stare back at us when we study brands, the minds that harbor these brands and the consumers that actually buy into these label offerings.
1.In the beginning there were a few brands. There were some categories that had no brands at all even. For instance the rice category in
And now we come to a state of acute category clutter. There are just too many brands in every category. The toilet soap category has 62 big brands, the ‘Atta’ category has seven, and the salt category has eleven! Competition for mind-space occupation is acute and interesting.
As the years roll by, there will be more brands. More brands that will add to the confusion that will prevail. Brand owners will add to the clutter-factor by extending their cash-cow brands into categories related and un-related. An Anchor will therefore not only be a thread, but a bulb and a toothpaste as well!
Too much confusion will result in that single quest of the consumer to look for the non-confusing. To look for the one offering that does not confuse. The one offer that simplifies it all. And this is likely to be a non-brand. A generic offering even! Back to the Vedas!
2. With too many brands doing the rounds of consumer minds, creating in the mind of every consumer a virtual dustbin of brands, price and value will dominate the brand-agenda in the years to come. As price, hitherto a dirty word in the lexicon of the purist brand manager, gains importance, the price war will result in a price-led-hierarchy of brands, destroying the very ethos of branding.
Value will dominate the agenda as well. As the value-conscious consumer is further value-sensitized by the overt offerings of “more for the same price” kind of promotions brand guardians will offer, yet another nail will be struck onto the coffin of brands.
3. The brand movement started off with the initial brands in every category being high price premium offerings. The first few brands were distinguished entrants into a category. An Yves Saint Laurent, a Tommy Hilfigher and a Gucci were all offerings at the premium end of the market. The brand movement then got to be more common. Other offerings such as Arrow, Allen Solly and a Peter England to boot, have made the brand movement as democratic as it can get.
Today, the brand is something that is within the reach of the common man. To an extent the brand has become a bit too common even. This is going to get even more so. Wait for the moment when every category will have an offering that will have a label on it. A common label!
The common label movement will then drive the consumer in search of the non-label. The “No-label” offering that will offer not only value, but exclusivity as well!
4. Brand incredulity is the last of my arguments on the prognosis for the brand movement in the future.
Brands have gone a bit too far in their promises to the consumer. In the beginning brands promised the earth and delivered the moon. And then they promised the earth and delivered the earth. And now, brands promise the moon and deliver the earth!
The future will be more complicated. Brands will promise a mix of Jupiter, Uranus, the moon and the earth all bundled together. In terms of delivery, there will be a fault. A small part of the earth (and that too a wee bit of Dharavi) will be on offer.
As brands fail in their promise and as brands stretch the imaginative line a bit too far, consumers will drop out and will want the non-brand on their menu of choice.
Four arguments that point to a clear “No-brand” future! A future where the non-brand will be a fashion statement. A statement of having arrived! A choice that will distinguish the intelligent from the stupid! Oops! It hurts!
The author is a brand-domain specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
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