The PR BlogPR TrendsBusiness ShiftsWhy Future Superbrands Will Be Virtual Town Squares

Why Future Superbrands Will Be Virtual Town Squares

The future for brands might be both social and virtual.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

Will there be super­brands also in the future?

Will we see “Facebooks”, “Amazons”, “Apples”, or “Googles” in a future where the total brand exper­i­ence will be more per­son­al and digit­al than ever before? 

The scope of the hori­zont­al con­ver­sa­tions and the speed of group form­a­tion are unpre­ced­en­ted in human his­tory. Everything becomes indi­vidu­al­ized, per­son­al­ized, diver­si­fied, dis­trib­uted, and disrupted.

At the same time, we look upon the giants. Honestly, do we see Apple or Google par­ti­cip­at­ing in the online con­ver­sa­tion? Well, we don’t. 

One might argue that con­ver­sa­tion­al mar­ket­ing is noth­ing but cos­met­ics, and when push comes to shove, it’s all about the products and the ser­vices provided. 

Others might argue that these super­nova brands don’t have to state their case – their ambas­sad­ors are doing it for them.

I would argue that it comes nat­ur­ally for us humans to state our inde­pend­ence and unique­ness as indi­vidu­als, but when it comes to our every­day lives and day-to-day exist­ence, we’re just creatures of habit.

Google is a fant­ast­ic com­pany and super­brand, but what would they be without the mil­lions of people using their search engine? Every innov­a­tion and long-tail line exten­sion of the Google brand is part of a con­tinu­ous for­ward motion, mainly because it rein­forces our habitu­al usage.

Tell me, how often do you google some­thing?

You and I and every­one – we are creatures of habit, mainly so since not everything can be a ration­al decision. And that’s also why we’ll have super­brands in the future. They might not be par­ti­cip­at­ing in the con­ver­sa­tion because of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Instead, they provide aren­as, digit­al hab­it­ats, for talks between online citizens.

Or put anoth­er way: Our men­tal band­width has a lim­it, so there will still be a small num­ber of brands we can relate to. 

Future super­brands will gain and main­tain such priv­ileged pos­i­tions by trans­form­ing into vir­tu­al town squares.

Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at KIX Index and Spin Factory. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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