Hat tip to Susan Abbott – this quote from Jeffrey Eisenberg is highly profound.
Brands don’t work the way they used to … Take a look at a company like Starbucks. Can anybody name a major brand, not a brand extension, but a major brand that in the last decade has been created primarily through advertising? Nobody. I’ve never met a crowd that could. If you think of companies like Yahoo and Google and Starbucks and Amazon, these companies have been built by experience and by word of mouth. Marketing doesn’t work the way it used to.
Technorati tags: Branding
Bankwatch 
Can you name a major brand in the decade before the last one that was created primarily through advertising?
It’s not that “marketing” doesn’t work the way it used to, it’s that “mass media advertising” has competition (e.g., other channels and points of influence) for influencing consumers’ perceptions.
Sorry to disagree, but I hardly find this a “profound” statement.
@Ron … I think Jeffrey is agreeing with you, but going further to state that mass media alone won’t make a new brand. We can extrapolate from that, to note that traditional marketing methodologies also won’t work in creating a brand. Not earth shattering but when I look at the agencies and how they work, they have a long way to go.
Clearly, mass-media marketing is less effective in the US than ever (not true in some countries). personally, I think this is a really good thing as brands need to rise or fall based on the “basics”, ie, great products, great experiences, great value. I didn’t take a marketing position until recently in my career, as the position/focus was completely customer-centric (social media).
Colin
Out here in India, Mass media still continues to build brands. Yes the clutter and the costs of doing so have grown exponentially, but large marketers and others continue to use television and print media to successfully launch their products.
@Nishad …. thanks for that “briung us back to reality comment”. I still wonder though about the effectiveness of mass media, and the comment that struck me was about the fact of new brands not being created through mass media.
Whats your take on the new ones, such as Tata and Infosys which are global now.
Brands have been democratized. Today a brand must demonstrate it’s worth by creating experiences that resonate with consumers. The days of advertising in order to establish credibility are over (thank goodness). Awareness no longer equals credibility. Brands are learning hard lessons about how to earn loyalty by delivering real experiences that can spread via word of mouth. That is the only way to succeed in this new brand world.
Colin, sorry to have missed your session at net.Finance. I heard it was great!