Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World

CHAPTER 24Brand New: Creating a Brand from Scratch

Paul Earle

No new product or service can launch anonymously—even, ironically, the global hacker collective Anonymous. Its cheeky name and iconic Guy Fawkes mask visual identity are as good as any new brand created by a professional, and Anonymous is now famous.

Similarly, Brandless—a new company that purports to be the antihero in a postapocalyptic brand world run amok—is of course itself a brand, and has now trademarked its name in nearly 70 categories.

The truth is that brands are omnipresent and inescapable. They impact everything: not just products and services, but people and places. Brands have impact, and great new ones can quickly take hold. Especially now.

Why now? I believe we are in the early stages of a full-fledged revolution in the consumer sector: within the next five years, practically every category will face radical change brought on by a new brand created from scratch. The big incumbent brands don’t have the cachet and consumer hold that they once did, and marketplace conditions—starting with the rise of e-commerce—are making it easier than ever for upstarts to get a new alternative commercialized.

As I often preach, a superb brand wrapped around an average product will outperform the inverse every time. If you’re interested in creating an instantly resonant and relevant brand that develops relationships with people, secures a real competitive advantage, and ultimately materially improves your company’s financial ...