Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Bloglines | My Feeds
Bloglines | My Feeds
John begins by mentioning an influential article in Wired last year by Jim Surowiecki (of The New Yorker and The Wisdom of Crowds fame) entitled "The Decline of Brands." It discussed the implications of three big trends in the consumer landscape, which are, in my words:
1. There are more brands than ever, yet the power of individual brands is falling (measured by the price premium they can command).
2. Historically brands were a proxy for quality, which varied widely from product to product. Now, with globalized manufacturing, those differences in quality across brands are shrinking, and consumers know it.
3. The reason they know it is that it now takes little more than a Google search to become a remarkably sophisticated buyer. Likewise, they can "rank by price" or "rank by rating" with one click. For discriminating consumers who want to shop smart, information power is replacing brand power.
John begins by mentioning an influential article in Wired last year by Jim Surowiecki (of The New Yorker and The Wisdom of Crowds fame) entitled "The Decline of Brands." It discussed the implications of three big trends in the consumer landscape, which are, in my words:
1. There are more brands than ever, yet the power of individual brands is falling (measured by the price premium they can command).
2. Historically brands were a proxy for quality, which varied widely from product to product. Now, with globalized manufacturing, those differences in quality across brands are shrinking, and consumers know it.
3. The reason they know it is that it now takes little more than a Google search to become a remarkably sophisticated buyer. Likewise, they can "rank by price" or "rank by rating" with one click. For discriminating consumers who want to shop smart, information power is replacing brand power.
