Brands in the digital age: Invert the accepted

This article argues that the successful brands of the future will place consumer needs at their centre, rather than the more traditional approach of building a product and then marketing it to consumers.

Brands in the digital age: Invert the accepted

Toby SouthgateThe Brand Union

To keep pace with changing consumer behaviour, brands need to build businesses with consumer needs at the centre, rather than the classic brand development process of building business strategy outwards towards the consumers.

I recently attended New York's Advertising Week, and wished I'd instigated a game of catchphrase bingo. 'Multi-channel', 'content strategy', 'consumer-focused productisation'… even the odd appearance of 'convergence', which I'd hoped had been left back in 2010. Apparently not.

These contemporary(ish) additions to the marketing lexicon are essentially all saying the same simple thing: the...

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