THE NEXT GENERATION OF BRANDS

THE NEXT GENERATION OF BRANDS

Brands (except the few rare ones) are here today and gone tomorrow. It is a jungle out here and only the brave and strong brands survive. During the bi-monthly BRANDforum held in October 2008 at the Jacaranda hotel, participants pondered over the future of brands

What is the future of brands? What are the next generation of brands? Predicting the future is always a difficult task considering that the past and present are not necessarily correct indicators of the future. Author Charles Handy calls this discontinuous change in his book, The Age of Unreason.

For brands, the ‘in thing’ seems to be partnerships. Almost every other big brand is partnering with another. From a business perceptive, companies are looking for other businesses that complement their goods and/or services. That appears to be the future of brands - at least for now. Pressure from competition and divergent consumer needs have resulted in brand ‘marriages’ for survival. Pay television rising star GTV is in partnership with Barclays, investment services powerhouse, Old Mutual is in partnership with Posta, Visa has partnerships with virtually every bank and almost all brands are dying to benefit from the new kid in town - MPesa. You can now pay utility bills using MPesa and service providers like Kenya Power and Lighting Company have not wasted time in partnering with the MPesa service. The future is in convergences that bring together a variety of offerings and making brands the preferred choice for consumers. If a brand can provide answers for consumers, its future is bright.

Cut-throat competition will certainly lead to the demise of many brands. The sharks are too many, reducing the chances of survival and leaving room for only a few survivors. The result, a few smart big boys control the brandscape. This thought is closely linked to the blurring of industries. The last few months have seen a number of developments that seem to point to the future. Zuku, an innovation by internet service provider, Wananchi, is now offering pay television. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, the Kenyan government broadcaster, plans to play in the mobile telephony market by offering infrastructure. Mumias Sugar, the first sugar miller to introduce branded products in the Kenyan market has ample capacity to supply power and plans to expand this offering. The sky is the limit and more businesses are positioning their brands for the future. These are just a few of the developments that make nonsense of the traditional segmentation of businesses and brands into industries.

For Kenya’s fashion industry which has grown steadily if fashion is anything to go by, then the future may just be in the past. Nostalgia and the yearning to recreate the “good old days” could be one way for the next generation of brands. Perhaps life can only become so much more complex and future brands will latch onto this to create a simplicity that can only be reminiscent of the past.

Whichever way the next generation of brands chooses to go, I can bet they shall remain true to one fact that is the hallmark of great brands - brands will continue to reflect the state of the human condition, the society. The brands that succeed in future, regardless of product or service offering, will be those that connect with the essence of the human condition of the time.

What is your forecast for brands in 2009?

The writer is a member of the Brandscape team
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