Jason Fry of the WSJ has a great take on branding circa the new millenium– it comes from being useful rather than shouting the loudest.
In his article, the Era of Bottom-up Brands, he talks about how Google and consumer reliance on search engine results drives a different approach to driving consumers to your products:
On today’s Web, everything begins with Google — and that’s driving a sea change in how brands are built and succeed. While brands remain vital online, the old top-down model of building them (think of a new magazine launch) is increasingly irrelevant to the Web. Instead, Google’s dominance allows and even encourages brands to be built from the bottom up, with their overall identity far less important than the little slices of themselves returned by Web searches and their position in search rankings.
These bottom-up brands already exist, and here’s an easy way to identify them: You’re more familiar with individual slices of their content than you are with their home pages — some of which you may never have visited.
Its a new twist on distribution, and one that should make those on Madison Ave quake in their boots– in an era of clutter, its about proving your worth up front rather than building it and having them come.
The tech business models of shareware and freeware are increasingly overturning the sales and marketing tactics of the retail space, making a proven utility the means of building a reputation. After all, I’d much rather know that you provide something I can use than know that you create some funny commercials. And the proof is increasingly in the pudding.
Relationships based on giving away material as a trusted friend/ partner appear to win in the internet economy. Reviews, deep information, and playing fair all seem to be tablestakes for the consumer’s attention. In an era where information is ubiquitous and can seem to aggregate into clutter, the winners will be those that can show that they are the simple, friendly choice.
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