Big brands pay the salaries and provide investment returns for many millions of people via pension funds. So if anyone declares that big brands are dying, they receive a great deal of attention.
There is quite a long history of such alarms, going back at least to 1993's 'Marlboro Friday', when Philip Morris cut the price of its cigarettes by 20%, with a collapse in its' and other big brands' stock value. Recently, there have been claims that big/global brands are losing to small/local brands. Theories have hastily been put forward as to why this might be, leading to marketing...