Branding is Dead
Branding is looking to become a thing of the past. While marketing, and branding are entirely based on very human irrational psycho-social indicators, buying is becoming very rational, less human and more robotic. How? The first blow was Google, with searches pushing well optimized, closely located products with lower prices to the top. This encouraged a growth in people searching buy item as opposed to brand. Second was influencer marketing which more than often speaks to the functionality of a product without context of its brand. The next major blow: Voice. Voice search options like Alexa are programmed to connect you with the most rational choice based on price and location. This means that money and effort spent on branding may be further withheld in place of price reduction and other more rational attempts to play in a changing ballpark.
