marketing the futureof brands,a chapterfrom brandsand branding

A Chapter from Brands and BrandingAn Economist Book

The Future of Brands

Interbrand130 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Telephone: 212 798 7500www.interbrand.com

April 2004

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Rita Clifton,Chairman, UK

Interbrand

[email protected]


Every brand needs a strong creative idea to bring it to life throughvisual and verbalidentity. This creativeprocess needs not onlyinnovation andimagination, but alsothe courage andconviction to carry it through.

The future of brands is inextricably linked to the future of business. In fact, the future of brandsis the future of business if it is to be about sustain-able wealth creation. Further, because of theinteraction of brands with society, and since so manysocially influential brands are in the not-for-profitsector, the future of brands is also inextricablylinked to the future of society.

This chapter examines some future trends and predictions, both in business and in broader soci-ety, and looks at how brands may affect and beaffected by those changes. It also explores the categories and countries that seem likely to yieldsome of the world’s greatest brands in the future,and makes observations on what brands of allkinds will need to do to be successful.

But first, it may be useful to recap the main themesand arguments outlined in previous chapters:

• Branding has been in existence for hundreds ofyears and has developed into a modern conceptthat can be applied to anything from productsand services to companies, not-for-profit concernsand even countries.

• Well-managed brands have extraordinary eco-nomic value and are the most effective andefficient creators of sustainable wealth. Under-standing the value of a brand, and how to createmore value, is essential management information.

• Brands can also have a critical social importanceand benefit in both developed and developingcountries. This applies as much to commercialbrands as not-for-profit organizations.

• Most of the world’s greatest brands today areAmerican owned, largely because of America’sfree political, commercial and social systems. But the knowledge and practice of what createsgreat brands can be (and is now being) appliedaround the world.

• Every brand, if it is to be successful, needs a clearpositioning, expressed through name, identityand all aspects of products, services and behavior.For corporate effectiveness and efficiency, the brand and its positioning should be used asa clear managing framework for portfolio management and business unit relationships.

• Increasingly, brands require a distinctive customerexperience in the round. Indeed, increasingly a brand is that experience, not least through the behavior of its people. The brand should be thecentral organizing principle for everyone andthen everything.

• Every brand needs a strong creative idea tobring it to life through visual and verbal identity. This creative process needs not only innovationand imagination, but also the courage and conviction to carry it through.

• The strongest brand communications may workat the levels of information, fame creation and bycreating (often unconscious) associations. Those elements that are harder to measure andjustify are no less important; in fact, they areoften the most important elements.

• Public relations for brands will succeed only if theyare based on the brand promise and the internalreality of the company. People have becomeincreasingly sceptical, and in a 24-hour newsculture, organisations have nowhere to hide,either inside or outside.

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• If a company is going to invest in a brand long-term, it must give its identifiable distinctivefeatures adequate legal protection, and it mustenforce that protection vigorously, increasinglyon a global basis.

• Leading global brands can, and should, help thewider public understand the benefits of global-ization and free trade. But they can do this only ifthey open up, behave well and collectively educateabout their benefits. They must also ensure theycontinue to innovate.

• Brands need better and socially broader mea-sures of success. Corporate social responsibilityshould be about genuinely solving problems, not just about brand reputation management.

• Asia shows every sign of becoming a globalbrand generator, not only in terms of cost advan-tage in manufactured product brands, but alsobecause of its heritage in areas such as person-alized services and holistic health.

• In a globalized world, nations need to competewith each other for the world’s attention andwealth. Active and conscious nation brandingcan help them do this, and at its best, it can beargued, it presents an opportunity to redistributethe world’s wealth more fairly in the future.

If the last theme in particular makes anyone baulk,it is worth remembering the importance that Chinais attaching to growing its branded commoditiesas its way forward in the world and “so as to bene-fit the world’s people”1. While many Westernnations are fashionably wringing their hands aboutthe nature of capitalism, and about brands as theirhighest profile manifestation, developing nationsare coming to see branded businesses, and indeedtheir own images, as their opportunity for develop-ment and more stable wealth and economic control.

Whether it is ironic or not, Western consumers’constant search for novelty and authenticity mayalso help ensure that the newer economies have an interested audience for their propositions.

But before reflecting on whether and how the mainthemes of this book may be carried forward in thefuture – and before speculating on the provenanceof the world’s most successful brands of the futureit is worth considering the broader future context.

The future thingThe future certainly isn’t what it used to be, but nevertheless a recent article by Martin Rees,the Astronomer Royal, made rather depressingreading.2 The opening line was:

“I think that the odds are no better than 50-50 thatour present civilization on earth will survive to theend of the century.”

He puts this down to the potential for maverickmisuse of science and / or weapons of massdestruction. In the meantime, of course, there isalways the possibility of super-volcanoes or asteroid hits.

At the other extreme, Watts Wacker, an Americanfuturist, made it part of his working philosophy toencourage organizations to develop “500-year”plans. This was meant to be symbolic rather thanliteral, but does rather stretch the point.

Steering a slightly less radical course either way, it was interesting to consider a range of predictionsfor the year 2025, drawn from various think tanksand futurists.3 These included market wars over iceon the moon; widespread designer babies; a trulypregnant man; a derelict Silicon Valley, overtakenby technologies such as quantum, optical and DNAcomputers; and one that would bring Rees’sdoomsday scenario rather closer – widespreadcyber-terrorism.

Brands need better and socially broadermeasures of success.Corporate socialresponsibility should be about genuinelysolving problems, not just about brandreputation management.


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You only have to look at a random selection of sci-fifilms and futurology books to understand the dangers of publishing-specific predictions. Even asrecently as the mid-1990s, Nicholas Negropontewas reportedly predicting that by the year 2000,more people would be entertaining themselves onthe Internet than watching TV networks. We shallsee whether Toshitada Doi, president of Sony’sDigital Creatures Laboratory, is right in saying thatrobots will eclipse PCs in product growth world-wide within 30 years (or even within 10–15 years).4

However, as Alvin Toffler says in his introduction toFuture Shock,

“The inability to speak with precision and certaintyabout the future is no excuse for silence.”5

It is obviously important to try to understand generaltrends and possibilities in scientific, economic and social terms if we are to plan and adapt brandfutures, whether for new or for existing brands.Even the strongest brands today can get stuck in a complacent time warp, overtaken by new andbaggage-free competitors.

Future brand issuesFrom past trends, the odds might seem in favor of the top brands today still being up there in 25 years’ time. As the introduction to this bookpointed out, over half of the 50 most valuablebrands have been around for more than 50 years.However, it is difficult to see how past performancewill give quite so much reassurance in the face ofthe extraordinary changes we are likely to see inworld power and economics in the next 10 years.

The most successful technology and telecommuni-cations brands have already shown how quicklythey can progress if they read and act on consumerand business trends in the right way (look atMicrosoft, Nokia and Intel). Their challenge is tomaintain their position and sustain their value.

To do this, they will have to continue to innovateand, critically, to deepen and extend their brandrelationships with customers well beyond the levelof technological prowess. For long-term value,brands need emotional as well as technologicalappeal. Indeed, they will have to invest in their brandas their major sustainable competitive advantage.

It is not unreasonable, for instance, to imagine thata new killer application will emerge from some-where like Bangalore in the near future. Nor is itunreasonable to suppose that the service andbranding skills required to build that propositioninto a sustainable brand will have developed tosuch a degree in India itself that global brand statusis within reach. What is more, the “skill cost” difference between India and America or Europe,which has already seen global organizations suchas Citibank and GE outsourcing their services tothe subcontinent, means that price differentials willmake their brands even more attractive.

For comparison, look at the wages differentialaround the world: in 2003, the minimum wage perhour was $5.15 in the United States and £4.20 inthe UK; equivalent wages were 18 pence (29 cents)in China and 7 pence (11 cents) in India6. As far asservice expertise is concerned, a recent study byDeloitte Research concluded that in the next fiveyears, 2 million jobs in Western financial institutionswill be moved overseas, which means that around$356 billion worth of financial services activity willmove away from first-world economies. Establishedbrands will indeed have to continue to leveragetheir trust and heritage, even while the core of theirown service offering is on a passage to India to cutcosts and satisfy Wall Street and the city. To takeup the opportunity properly, however, India willneed to work on its nation branding in terms ofreliability of infrastructure and the taint of corrup-tion. With 1.3 billion consumers, China is theworld’s biggest potential consumer market.

It is obviously importantto try to understandgeneral trends andpossibilities in scientific,economic and socialterms if we are to planand adapt brandfutures, whether fornew or for existingbrands. Even thestrongest brands todaycan get stuck in acomplacent time warp,overtaken by new and baggage-freecompetitors.


It is currently difficult to attend a conference onworld trade and financial issues without speakersspeculating on the extraordinary impact China ishaving and will continue to have. A study by theEngineering Employers’ Federation in the UK7 sug-gested that one-third of manufacturing firms wereconsidering shifting production to China. A vividcase study is Hornby, a venerable British company,manufacturer of classic toy train sets, owner of the Scalextric brand and recently brought back tofame by the Hogwarts Express featured in the HarryPotter films. In speaking about the advantages ofmoving production to China, the CEO says:

“The strain on the bottom line began to ease immediately. We were able to use the savings toincrease the quality and details of the models sothat sales began to pick up.”

Essentially, the company retained just the designersand managers at its UK head office in Margate,reducing the head count from 550 to 130, eventhough some observers were sceptical of the long-term viability of separating innovation and production.

One other thing Hornby’s CEO outlined was hisview of the fate of the company had he not movedproduction: “Hornby would have closed, or beentaken over by a Chinese company, if we hadn’tmoved.” This was no idle boast in the light of thecase of Haier. Almost 20 years ago the QingdaoRefrigerator Plant bought the production-linetechnology from Liberhaier, a German company,and used this as the basis for its brand name. As noted in the previous chapter, Haier is now the world’s second-biggest refrigerator brand.How much of this is to do with the borrowed beliefamong some buyers that they are of German origin is debatable.

This kind of false provenance, whether real orassumed, is hardly a new idea. In the electronicgoods category alone, it has been customary for UKelectrical retailers to give their own-label productsJapanese-sounding names, as this would give bet-ter quality associations than British-manufacturedelectrical goods. Think also of Haagen-Dazs, Estée Lauder, Hugo Boss and Sony as brands witha name at odds with the real country of origin and ownership. Clearly, although provenance, andauthenticity in that provenance, is important insuch categories as luxury and cars, so muchdepends on how the brands are built and managed.Many of the world’s most valuable brands nowtranscend their country of origin. A Chinese com-pany such as Legend computers will need all theseworld-class branding skills if its global ambitionsare to be realized. As we have discussed before, its ambitions to become the world’s biggest PCmanufacturer within 10 years will not necessarilymake it the world’s most valuable PC brand.However, there is a particularly strong Asian brandcase study that may serve to inspire them for the future.

Samsung, from South Korea, is one of the mostspectacular global brand success stories of recentyears. From a brand value of just under $2.5 billionin 1997, it grew to almost $11 billion in 2003, and seems likely to continue its success. It is thereason for its success that is of interest here. In the mid-1990s, Samsung’s managers realizedthat they would be on the commodity and low-price road to perdition if they did not develop theirown brand. They saw a real opportunity in the digital platform, invested heavily in premium-quality innovation and R&D and, most telling of all,invested in their own brand rather than be condemned to the uncertainty of OEM8 statusindefinitely. They built brand awareness around the world, and resolved to use their brand value(rather than just straight financials) as a key

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Samsung, from SouthKorea, is one of the mostspectacular global brandsuccess stories of recentyears. From a brand valueof just under $2.5 billionin 1997, it grew to almost $11 billion in 2003


performance measure. As the company’s presidentand CEO said at the time:

“Competing successfully in the 21st century willrequire more than just outstanding product and quality functions. Intangibles such as corpo-rate and brand image will be crucial factors forachieving a competitive edge.”

This concern for other measures, and ways of measuring performance to ensure that everyone in a company continues to build brand value ratherthan trading on it, is perhaps something that moreWestern companies, particularly publicly quotedcompanies, and the equity markets need to reflect on.

Brand America may appear to have taken a seriesof body blows in the early years of the 21st century.However, while it might be true to say that thereare slightly fewer American-owned brands in the top 100 today compared with a few years ago,this is as much to do with market changes andself-inflicted corporate wounds as American heritage. More than 60 percent of the world’s mostvaluable brands are still American-owned. Despiteopinion polls and anti-American demonstrations,consumers can be radical at the research question-naire and reactionary at the checkout.

However, other countries are beginning to learn theglobal brand game, and companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike will need to keep on reflecting theirsensitivity to local cultures and habits in their man-agement and marketing approaches. It is interestingthat, whereas for the past 50 years America itselfhas been a strong brand, standing for freedom andlifestyle aspiration, increasing familiarity and thespread of democracy have meant that these previ-ously magical qualities have lost their cachet.American-owned brands will have to work that muchharder on more imaginative positionings, operationsand communications for their brands if they are towithstand the challenge from all comers.

An interesting battle of retail brands and operatingphilosophies is potentially emerging between the mighty Wal-Mart and Tesco, a UK-basedretailer. In many ways, Wal-Mart is the archetypicalAmerican business success story. It has in Sam Walton a founder with a distinctive home-cooked philosophy, with a strong service and moralethic, and a zealous evangelism for giving peopleAmerican-style life opportunities.

Wal-Mart’s expansion internationally has beencautious so far, as has its behavior around its pur-chase and management of the Asda brand in the UK. While the retail giant has made a simplephilosophy of low prices and genuine customerservice work well in the United States, and hasmade much of its respect for employees, there areperhaps lessons to be learned from the innovation,own-brand building and customer relationshipmanagement of the best UK grocery retailers.There are several margin-point differences betweenthe average grocery retail businesses in the UKand those in America.

While some of this difference is down to the domi-nant position of major retail chains in the UK, it isalso because of their success in building their ownbrand values, and using their own-brand productsand services to sustain their quality image, rather than just being price fighters against manu-facturer brands. Tesco is now not only the UK’snumber one retailer and one of its most respectedcompanies, it is also the world’s largest online grocer, and its joint venture with iVillage.com hascreated the largest women’s online destination inthe world. Out of the 10 countries in which it oper-ates, Tesco is currently market leader in six. Its statedcore purpose, to “create value for customers toearn their lifetime loyalty,” has driven its ability toextend its brand well beyond grocery into banking,health care and mobile telephony. It is a brand thatis trusted by people in whatever area it is operating.

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More than 60% of theworld’s most valuablebrands are still Americanowned. Despite opinionpolls and anti-Americandemonstrations, consu-mers can be radical at the research question-naire and reactionary atthe checkout.


This ability of a strong brand to transcend categories,and to be trusted by consumers in whichever cate-gory it chooses to involve itself, would seem to bean important property of the world’s greatestbrands in the future. In a hyper-competitive, over-communicated and complicated world, people willincreasingly want and need to simplify their pur-chases and time management. What is more, in a blurring physical and virtual world, any brandwill have the ability to be a powerful medium and a power retailer – if only in virtual space.

Trusted brands provide ideal navigation for consumers across sectors, and as the strongestwill be able to leap into categories without havinga previous product or service track record, no brand will be sacred in its marketplace anymore.Although it has its financial challenges, the Virginbrand is another good example of this leaping ability. It has a strong vision and values aroundbeing people’s champion, innovative and irreverent,and through popular support has managed to transcend markets from airlines to cosmetics, from financial services to mobile telephony, from soft to hard drinks and many more.

The issue of category-defying life brands is alsorelevant when looking at those new or growth categories that would seem most likely to producestrong brand growth in the future. These include:

• health and well-being, including more holistic and organic lifestyles;

• leisure, entertainment and “new adventure” experiences;

• physical and emotional security;• services for a new generation of the “new old”

(a critical trend in industrialized countries);• lifelong education;• information and lifestyle management (relevant

to the prediction of Sony’s “personal robots”);• biotechnology and genetics.

These areas could yield entirely new global brandsin the future; it may well be that the most valuablebrand in the next 25 years has not been inventedyet. However, it is equally possible that an existing,trusted brand may extend or cross into these newareas. As part of this, the blurring of the online andoffline worlds (a distinction that is already barelyrecognized by global teenagers) will mean that anybrand can become powerful both as a medium and as a retailer, virtual or otherwise.

Current product-based brands will find it harderthan service or retail brands to deepen andbroaden their relationships with their audiences.This is not just because they are having to invest so much of their marketing support in retail distrib-ution, rather than spending it on consumercommunication. It is also because in their currentform, they lack the ability to control the total customer experience, and so engage their audiencesas fully as they would like. Chapter 6 of this bookhighlights the increasing importance of experiencein building brands, and we should expect to see inthe future many more “manu-retailers”: product-based brand companies developing their own retailexperiences and direct relationships with theirconsumers, both offline and online.

Unilever’s experiment with “myhome”, a homecleaning and laundry service, was interesting in itsextension of Persil and Cif as service brands.Although it did not progress beyond its test market,it nevertheless demonstrated the company’s inter-est in developing core brands beyond the productform. To facilitate this process of concentration onresources, innovation and investment behind itsmost successful brands, Unilever has been cullingits smaller and weaker brands in recent years,either selling them or dropping them. As otherconglomerates have been doing the same, an interesting possibility is on the cards.

6The Future of Brands

Current product-basedbrands will find itharder than service orretail brands to deepenand broaden theirrelationships with theiraudiences. This is notjust because they arehaving to invest somuch of their marketingsupport in retail distri-bution, rather thanspending it on consumercommunication

Not only will we continue to see further brand consolidation and corporate musical chairs, but some of the brands that are being sold offcould end up in the newer economies, fired up byentrepreneurial spirit and a new angle for selling.Think of Haier many times over.

Other areas of brand activity that are likely toincrease in the future are co-branding (for example,Sony Ericsson) and celebrity branding (as in currentexamples like David Beckham and Jennifer Lopez).The challenge for the former is to generate clarityabout the joint brand proposition (never easy inpartnership), and for the latter, to identify how togenerate long-term sustainable value after the flush of celebrity fades.

It is also interesting as a trend that major corpora-tions such as Mars and Estée Lauder have eitherlaunched or acquired brands that feel like explicitsocial enterprises, and have allowed them to operate with no obvious brand connection with thecorporate owner. Mars acquired Seeds of Changein 1997; it had been launched in 1989, with a statedpurpose of preserving biodiversity and sustainabledevelopment. Estée Lauder later acquired Aveda, a brand connecting “beauty, environment and well-being.” At a conference shortly afterwards,Leonard Lauder said that Estée Lauder itself wascommitted to phasing out synthetics entirely, following the lead of Aveda. Using new ventures ofthis kind as operating test-beds for new businessprinciples indicates that major corporations recog-nize that business may have to be conceived andconducted in rather different ways in the future.

Another area to mention for brand growth is thenon-governmental organisation (NGO) sector.When national governments, for whatever reasons,cannot or choose not to act, non-governmentaland not-for-profit organisations can play the role

of guardian brands. A recent example is the roleOxfam has played in the developing-world coffeecrisis, where coffee farmers in the poorest coun-tries are facing falling prices and new levels ofpoverty. In a 2002 report, Oxfam demanded thatthe multinational companies involved in coffee pur-chasing and marketing demonstrate a “long-termcommitment to ethical purchasing.”9 In the future,raising funds will be as much of a challenge forsuch organizsations as it has always been. To avoidthe danger of appearing compromised by expedientcorporate partnerships, they should perhaps thinkmore about selling or licensing their intellectualproperty about best practices in ethical processesand measurement.

Further brand management considerationsIn maximizing and sustaining the value of brands in the future there needs to be more focus on:

• Understanding the value and value drivers of abrand. As can be seen from the Samsung case, a focus on brand value and measuring perfor-mance on the basis of the brand value addedcan build momentum and create sustainablegrowth. It is also crucial management informa-tion for mergers, acquisitions and divestments,which will continue in the future as marketsshake out and consolidate. Few mergers currentlydeliver long-term shareholder value, largelybecause of overemphasis on financials and prac-tical operations. Greater focus on brand valuewould help mergers succeed as well as generat-ing real organic growth.

• Clarity of brand positioning. Clarity of vision, values and positioning overall are often giveninsufficient attention in practice. The majority ofcorporate and brand visions are interchangeable,bland and viewed with cynicism. In an over-com-municated world, lack of clarity will substantially


Clarity of vision, valuesand positioning overallare often given insuffi-cient attention inpractice. The majority of corporate and brandvisions are interchange-able, bland and viewedwith cynicism.

reduce effectiveness and efficiency, and complexbrand and sub-brand structures without a realaudience rationale will reduce this still further.Clarity of strategy is also one of the leading criteria by which companies are judged.

• Brands as total experiences, and as central organizing principles, rather than just productsand logos. The success of experience-basedbrands at building deeper customer relationshipsat the expense of solely product-based brandsargues strongly for every brand to think about itstotal chain of experience – from visual identity to advertising, product, packaging, PR , in-storeenvironment – and increasingly round-the-clockpresence and availability online. Technology will provide the opportunity to build an even-greater sensory experience into brands throughtouch, smell and sound. Whatever emerges, distinctive value can and will need to be added at every stage of the experience, or at the veryleast, not lost.

• More compelling and more imaginative expressions of a brand’s identity and brand communications. Senior executives may not feelentirely comfortable in this area, but the ability to break through brand proliferation and com-munications clutter depends on imaginative andinnovative creative expression. In the developedworld, audiences are knowledgeable and savvyabout marketing, and will increasingly edit outcommunications that they find boring or irritating.Imagination will need to be applied not just tothe creative message, but also to the medium.Product placements in editorial and appropriatesponsorship of events, programs and computergames will become more important. In particular,young people around the world have high expec-tations from brands, and are increasingly difficultto reach and satisfy.

• The need for internal and external operations tobe aligned – and transparent. In an all-seeingdigital world, and in a sharper business environ-ment where employees at all levels can beambassadors or saboteurs for the company’sreputation, there really will be no hiding placesany more. Organizations will have no choice but to be transparent in their dealings and fulfiltheir promises, or to have transparency forced on them. On a more positive note, numerousstudies have confirmed that investment in a com-pany’s employees, and their good treatment,translates into significantly better customer satis-faction. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are,and will be, the drivers of long-term sustainablebrand value.

• Rigorous legal protection around the world. It is estimated that 9 percent of world trade iscounterfeited.10 Although international law isincreasingly being upheld, even in the previouscounterfeiting capitals of the world, it is likelythat while there are still brands to copy, therewill be willing makers and buyers of copies.Brand owners must use the full weight of thelaw, quickly and publicly, to prevent value lossand degradation. Brand valuation, which candemonstrate how much economic loss might beattributed to passing off, is an effective way ofsupporting cases such as these.

• Corporate social responsibility as a core corporateresponsibility. Corporate social responsibility(CSR) seems to be an overused buzz term in toomany organizations today, and a whole newindustry has grown up around it. Although goodintentions may be there, all too often organizationslook at CSR as an insurance policy, or a moresophisticated form of cause-related marketing,rather than as core to their operations.


Product placements ineditorial and appropriatesponsorship of events,programs and computergames will become moreimportant. In particular,young people around theworld have high expec-tations from brands, andare increasingly difficultto reach and satisfy.

Many responsible companies produce elaborateCSR reports, including social and environmental performance. However, it is necessary to askwhether the basic principle of separate reports isthe right one, or whether there should be a moreintegrated and central way of dealing with theseissues in the future if we are going to have the kind of world we would all want. Or at least tomitigate the pessimistic scenarios of environmen-tal destruction and terrorism breeding in areas ofpoverty and exclusion that we might all fear.

For those who would say, “But what has this to dowith business and brands?” the fact that brandshave the power to change people’s lives and indeedshape the world we live in is not a fanciful notion,but a demonstrable fact. Brands have extraordinaryeconomic power, often transcending national governments, and are able to connect with people’slives, behavior and purchases across borders. If there are those who say that business’s only concern should be to make a profit, then this wouldnot only to be missing the point about CSR at itsbasic level – that CSR, by definition, demands morethan the profit motive – but also missing out onopportunities for brand leadership in the future.From more than 3,000 studies of brands around theworld, leadership is the characteristic most closelycorrelated with the strongest long-term value.

Any brand seeking to succeed and to be mostvaluable in the future will need to think and behavelike a leader: at the basic levels of product and service distinction, and at the more emotional levelsof creativity, values and core social contribution.

The future of brand leadershipIt is appropriate, from time to time, for governments,businesses and indeed any organization to ask them-selves what they are there for. Procter & Gamblerecently restated its core purpose of improving thelives of its consumers. Samsung talks about creating superior products and services and “contributing to a better global society … to theprosperity of people all over the world – a singlehuman society.” The UK government published itsquality of life indicators in 1999 in answer to chal-lenges on how to create a more sustainable society.

It is easy, but probably not helpful, to be cynicalabout these kinds of statements. Ironically, one ofthe brakes to progress on environmental and socialissues for companies has been a fear that theiractions will be interpreted cynically. Although thestick is an important incentive for companies not tomisbehave, opinion-forming media might thinksometimes about the carrot of encouragement forcorporations trying to do the right thing and struggling to balance the interests of shareholders,consumers and the public at large.

This balancing act also leads on to discussionsabout how businesses (and indeed governments)are measured and rewarded, as well as how totruly measure the wealth and well-being of societyin general. A recent study by the Future Foundationconcluded that the increase in wealth and posses-sions in the UK was poorly correlated withhappiness,10 and the UK government’s SustainableDevelopment Commission found the same in itsstudy of prosperity.11 While it is easy to sit in thewealthy West and philosophize about these thingswhen people in developing countries are dyingthrough lack of basic services, it does neverthelessraise questions about the goal of development.Will our prioritizing of economic success in prefer-ence to any other be as appropriate in the future,in either developed or developing countries?


Any brand seeking tosucceed and to be mostvaluable in the future willneed to think and behavelike a leader: at the basiclevels of product andservice distinction, andat the more emotionallevels of creativity,values and core socialcontribution.

There are several references to alternative, morebroad-based measurement systems for businessand society in this book. These would give a broaderbase to the priorities of CEOs and governments.

It would, of course, be better for organizations totake an active lead in setting standards in differentmarkets. What can be termed a “leader brand” isnot a brand leader in the old-fashioned sense,reflecting scale and muscle alone; rather it reflectsa newer, restless and agenda-setting leadershipacross all areas of philosophy and operations,inside and out. Leader brands also need to take itupon themselves to explain the wider benefits ofbranding, and increasingly show sensitivity to localcultures, so that they continue to have licence tooperate (and hopefully be welcomed) in even themost difficult parts of the world. As discussedthroughout, brands can be uniting influences, andpowerful social and economic developers. It isimportant for all brand owners and influencers tomanage their brands well, and as a discernibleforce for good, and to ensure that they help peopleunderstand the benefits in a more informed way.

The balance of this book has been quite unashamedly“pro logo,” but there is a conditional “pro” here.Brands will continue to succeed if they deserve it,and since the future of brands is the future of sus-tainable business and fundamental to developmentsin society, it is important to us all to see that they do.

References

1. Chinese Vice Premier Wu Bangguo, reported in the China People’s Daily.

2. “The end of the road?,” Sunday Times, 20 April 2003.3. “Chronicle of the future,” Sunday Times.4. “Sony re-dreams its future,” Fortune, 10 November 2002.5. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books.6. Quoted in “The great Indian takeaway,” Sunday Times, 8 June 2003.7. Ibid.8. Original equipment manufacturer.9. “Mugged: poverty in your coffee cup,” Oxfam, 200210. “High anxiety screws up our hi-tech heaven,”

Sunday Times, 27 July 2003.11. “Re-defining prosperity,” Jonathon Porritt,

Chair of Sustainable Development Commission, June 2003.


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Interbrand130 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Telephone: 212 798 7500www.interbrand.com

Part 1: The Case for Brands

What is a Brand? Tom Blackett, Interbrand

The Financial Value of Brands Jan Lindemann, Interbrand

The Social Value of Brands Steve Hilton, Good Business

What Makes Brands Great Chuck Brymer, Interbrand

Part 2: Best Practice in Branding

Brand Positioning and Brand Creation Anne Bahr Thompson, Interbrand

Brand Experience Shaun Smith, consultant

Visual and Verbal Identity Tony Allen and John Simmons, Interbrand

Brand Communications Paul Feldwick, BMP

The Public Relations Perspective on Branding Deborah Bowker, Burson-Marsteller

Brand Protection Allan Poulter, Field Fisher Waterhouse

Part 3: The Future for Brands

Globalization and Brands Sameena Ahmad, The Economist

An Alternative Perspective on Brands:Markets and MoralsDeborah Doane, New Economics Foundation

Branding in Southeast Asia Kim Faulkner, Interbrand

Branding Places and Nations Simon Anholt, Placebrands

The Future of Brands Rita Clifton, Interbrand

© Interbrand 2004

Founded in 1974, Interbrand serves the world with over 30 offices in over 20 countries. Working in closepartnership with our clients we combine the rigorous strategy and analysis of brand consulting withworld-class design and creativity.

We offer a range of services including research, strategy, naming and verbal identity, corporate identity,package design, retail design, internal brand communications, corporate reporting, digital branding tools,and brand valuation.

We enable our clients to achieve greater success by helping them to create and manage brand value.

The Economist book Brands and Branding was launched in February 2004. It is widely available at book-sellers in-store and online. Contents of Brands and Branding: