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April 11, 2005
Unbrand!
Posted by John Winsor
William Safire wrote a thoughtful On Language column yesterday in the New York Times, where he stated:
In a world where the words new and fresh are relentlessly repeated on every product label, the name of the sales technique is getting old and stale. Where is the ad-Übermensch, the creative Ogilvy, who will put forward a new moniker for the name of the atmospheric marketing game? The time has come, as John Kerry puts it, to unbrand the word brand.
The working title for my book Beyond the Brand was Unbrand and at the time, many involved in the project thought that such a title would be too radical. Now, a year later, I feel, more than ever, like Safire is right. The word brand has started to loose it's magic through overuse. Is there another word that captures the same concepts? If so, what is it?
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1. Errol Saldanha on April 16, 2005 03:06 PM writes...
‘Brand’ and ‘branding’ are just words — they cannot be held responsible for over-marketing by corporations or consultants (what William is really reacting to).
If we “cool off” on uses of the word ‘brand’, what single term do we replace it with? I have spent countless hours researching and I could not find anything better. It is too easy to suggest that ‘brand’ is a bad word — a lot harder to find a replacement and even harder to properly define it (which is where we should focus our energy).
The terms ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ are already “unbranded”. As a result of all the hype, few people understand their true meaning. So it is time for branding, not unbranding.
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