Why is Branding a Big Deal Today?

In today’s fast-paced society, businesses are seeing vast changes with how their businesses are run, compared to 50 years ago. Companies today have become so information rich, and the economy has moved away from a mass production model (i.e. Ford) to a mass customization model (i.e. the apps on your iPhone). While technology continues to advance, it's really been pushed to the limits to provide maximum efficiency and productivity for their customers.

Because of the limits that lie within businesses' attempts to provide the latter qualities, companies are currently forced to look elsewhere in order to make themselves stand out from competition. "Creativity" and "innovation" are sources of many ways in which businesses attempt to be seen as prominent. Currently, many businesses are looking to innovative strategies not only within the company (such as with management and procedures), but they are also thinking of more creative products and means of advertising for those products; hence, the emergence and importance of branding. Because much of the playing field has been leveled out in regards to the access of knowledge with the spreading of the internet, creativity and brand management have become the essential drive for successful business.

So the million dollar question is: how are businesses doing it? The important point for companies to realise is that purchasing a product has symoblic meaning for the customer. People want to know what the product looks like, what 'group' of people buy it, and what people are saying about it. Just yesterday I was speaking with a fellow MBA and he asked me how to play iTunes on the professors Mac. My first question was "Wait, don't you have an iPhone?!" When he said "No" and in fact, he had zero Apple products, my jaw dropped to the floor. What 20 something year old doesn't own an Apple product?! (This statement is sort of California specific because I realise that there are a lot of other products once you get out of the US).

At any rate, the bottom line is that consumers attach a feeling with the product, and this feeling resides as a large determination point in whether or not the product will be purchased. Companies who know how to target a group of people and attach positive feelings to their products will help to separate the “good” from the “great” companies.