Is Branding Dead? – March 2019

J. Walter Thompson is a legendary American advertising agency famous for many, many firsts.

The ad agency idea of the 'Account Executive' and the 'Creative Department' were both born at JWT in the 1880's.

But neither achievement is more significant than the development and perfection of trademark advertising. JWT literally wrote the book on how to build an impenetrable trademark brand with rigid visual identity standards and compelling creative campaigns that drove brand differentiation into people’s brains with head-soaking media strategies. Good branding builds trust. And brands like Ford Motor Company, Kraft and Kodak were built by JWT to legally dominate their respective categories and command a premium price and profit that more than paid for their staggering advertising budgets.

During the 20^th century the importance of branding grew so much that renowned branding expert David Aaker declared in his 1990’s book Managing Brand Equity that the value of many corporate brands exceeded the value of all other corporate assets combined. It was a great time to be in advertising because advertising was a critical component of branding.

At the turn of the new millennium, the Internet and social media changed marketing forever and the importance of branding in a number of ways:

1. Millennials are all about saving money and not purchasing products they don’t need.
2. Quality is expected and delivered with automation and quality control so consumers will more readily switch brands if it means saving money.
3. Online reviews play a powerful role in shaping opinions and far outweigh traditional advertising
4. Convenience will often take precedence over brand preference
5. Because brand proliferation has brought about so many more choices – brand loyalty is weak

So what does this mean? Check out our blog for the complete story.

Please feel free to reach me anytime at byoung@youngcompany.com or 949-438-2722.

Irvine Subaru has been a Young Company client since 2009! Irvine Subaru has achieved the distinction of being the largest inventory Subaru Dealer in Orange County and continues to receive recognition for its high quality sales and service. Young Company manages advertising and event marketing to leverage Subaru’s national coop program.