It was with a fair amount of alarm that I read in the Globe and Mail yesterday that the “brand bubble” was about to burst. Well, first I rolled my eyes at the use of the world “bubble” (I think I’m all bubble-bursted out), but then I was like, “You can’t go, brand! You’ve defined my whole life!”
I grew up the 80s and 90s, in the heydey of the brand-lifestyle movement. I ached for Vuarnet sunglasses, wore Doc Martens and generally indulged in a pretty big brand party* — in my defense, I had no idea I was doing so. But then I go off to school and what was the single tome for my third-year core Mass Communications class? No Logo by Naomi Klien, telling me I’ve been part of a nefarious corporate plot my whole life. My prof loved that book, man. And we loved it back – this was ’99 to 2000, the years of global protest against all things global. Then, then I nestled into my professional career where all my communications work is directed toward…… creating brands. Hell, I’m a brand! (Or so they say I should be)
So you can imagine my despair when I read:
“John Gerzema, chief insights officer at Young & Rubicam Inc., writes in ChangeThis Manifestos that, while brand values have risen steadily over the past decade, customers’ brand awareness has declined 20 per cent, brand esteem 12 per cent, perceived brand quality 24 per cent, and trust in brands a staggering 50 per cent. He points out that this means most businesses and the financial markets believe brands are worth more than the consumers who buy them, and eventually this brand valuation gap will result in a crash, as top companies learn they aren’t worth what they had believed.”
Yikes! I’m going to have to relearn all my agency lingo! I don’t know if I even want to contemplate such a world… 
-KB
* My mother did not support this. She would not buy me NKOTB T-shirts, bedspreads or posters and made me save my allowance for that $25 Vuarnet shirt. “I won’t pay for you to be someone else’s billboard!” she would say. Fifteen years later, I appreciate her stance.
