Quality products do not need great advertising to impress

This article argues that agencies which value brands, like financial ratings agencies, are probably using flawed models - rather, the true "ownership" of brands lies only with their users.

Quality products do not need great advertising to impress

Brian Millar

In my adult life I've lived through The End of History, The New Economy, The Washington Consensus and now the End of the Free Market. Usually there's a few years' pause between the declaration of a new era and an admission that it's really just business as usual, and the journalists who hyped it in the first place all quickly pretend they were always really sceptical.

As marketers, we shouldn't be surprised that banks' credit-worthiness depends wholly on the opinions of other lenders. Brands work just the same way:...

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