Brands as Ecosystems
What are the words, images, artefacts and concepts that come to mind when we talk about or build brands? Strategy certainly. Design and guidelines of course. Advertising yes too. Immaterial value maybe. Commerce possibly. And last but not least consumers.
The world of marketing - and the world more broadly, but that’s for another newsletter - was complicated enough in the 20th century, yet it was highly predictable. The Ps of marketing, the scale of R&D investments and retail operations, the robustness of one’s supply chain, the media spend GRP were all valuable predictors of how a brand could grow in a linear way, in a linear world where consumers would consume brands, products and messages.
The world of marketing today - and the world more broadly, but that’s for newsletters 30 years from now to start making sense thereof - has grown beyond complicated, it has become complex.
“Complicated problems can be hard to solve, but they are addressable with rules and recipes, like the algorithms that place ads on your Twitter feed. They also can be resolved with systems and processes, like the hierarchical structure that most companies use to command and control employees.
The solutions to complicated problems don’t work as well with complexproblems, however. Complex problems involve too many unknowns and too many interrelated factors to reduce to rules and processes. A technological disruption like blockchain is a complex problem. A competitor with an innovative business model — an Uber or an Airbnb — is a complex problem. There’s no algorithm that will tell you how to respond.” - source.
Competitors use social platforms to build or insert themselves into communities, and leverage cloud, supply chain and platform infrastructures such as Amazon (AWS & Marketplace) or Shopify to scale efficiently and rapidly, disrupting incumbent brands throughout the marketing funnel. Consumers review, remix and repurpose products, ads, fads and vibes across dozens of social platforms, spaces and apps. Content from all creeds - politics and public discourse, education and personal development, commerce, entertainment, … - comes aplenty on all feeds and screens.
At the very least a brand is a distinctive sign, one that serves as a guarantee of origin and quality for designated products and services. Actually brands have long been more than distinctive descriptors, they’ve been passive badges of status and belonging. With digital interfaces and infrastructures brands have become tactile, familiar and utilitarian at the same time - ain’t Amazon as much an app / a website / a price comparison tool / a consumer review source as a retailer? And as larger and larger swaths of society and markets - don’t we all feed the big capitalist beast that is so reluctant to share its dividends evenly or internalize its negative externalities? - get voices, get access, get heard and seen, all of the above functions, internal and external, directly controlled or hardly harnessed, have to be subsumed under brands. We could call that a mess, let’s just call this complex, and let’s navigate the many channels, touch points, stakeholders, fans and contrarians, interfaces and places, polished creator artefacts, UGC bits and pieces that now define, make and sustain brands.
Talking Too Many
I am known to digress into long-winded soliloquies and answers, yet I find comfort, beauty and meaning in the tight lines of a finely worded haiku. Talking Too Many is an attempt at encapsulating ecosystem branding in as few words as possible, which can be long. In a complex world where many talk to many, this newsletter is made to mean as much as possible, in as little space and time as needed, that’s all - and that’s a lot.
Anthony Hamelle
I once was a lawyer, for a very short period of time. I’ve been a teacher and I shall hope I’ll be one once more. I am a creative strategist working at the crossroads of advertising, publishing and technology. I have been designing and populating brand ecosystems for media, entertainment and consumer brands alike for 20+ years. Should you wish to dig deeper: Instagram for short lived haikus, LinkedIn for you know what.
