The backlash to branding builds
As the practice of brand building grows ever more sophisticated, it’s natural to see the start of a backlash building.
In his new book, “Obsessive Branding Disorder,” Lucas Conley writes: “Branding is corrupting our culture by heralding emotion over reason, surface over core substance, and packaging over experience.”
Branding blogger Russell Fisher agrees. “This is a core reason why the discipline of marketing is treated with derision. Instead of focusing on concrete reasons for product diffusion and adaption, we marketers too often look at the fluff.
Is the sky falling?
“The world is cheapened when everyone sees it with a marketer’s eye,” Conley writes. ” We lose trust for each other and grow skeptical of one another as we try to determine what we’re being sold. We become more isolated and more self-conscious, more prone to rely on brands for status and to ally ourselves with other brand loyalists for company.”
