Bigger Bolder Brands. Is this the era of the consumer or the era of the corporation?

On the one hand – mówe know about consumer empowerment – The Internet has given people power, unity and a chance to fight against large corporations, and social media makes it possible to waste a multi-million advertising budget in a single 24-hour period.

On the other hand, we see the uncontrolled development ofócompanies such as Facebook – deciding what we think, or Amazon – deciding about the rest.

I am sure you will be very surprised when I say that “will be a little bit like this, a little bit like this”. And bigger and bigger brands will determine our lives exactly to the extent that we let them. And we are allowing more and more.

Rise of the Titans

Whether out of convenience, laziness, or perhaps resignation – People are consciously giving up more and more control over their lives to technology and brands. Starting with electronic watchesóWe have to decide what to eat, playlists that decide what we watch and what we listen to, and even fitbands that decide when we should take a walkóThey decide for us when we should drink a glass of water or take a walk.

In the world there are growing brands or rather companies-Titans, któTo them, we will voluntarily surrender a good deal of control over our lives – in the name of convenience, health and longevity.

Here it is important to note that this will not happen as a result of a global conspiracy or chip vaccines, but entirely voluntary. People will simply choose, once again in history, what will require less cognitive and physical effort from them.

Rarely, perhaps with the exception of the AppStore – hen a brand has bought itself a store. More often, it is the store that buys the brand and starts „yourself” produce what it sells.

A company starts as a store, then acquires more suppliersóand distribution channels. And at some point you realize that you live in a house bought at this store on credit from this company, you drive their taxiótion to their clinic, and you pay for your visit to the doctor with loyalty points earned in the online store.

These brands will become virtually transparent, penetrating deeply into our lives, as they become increasingly simple and intuitiveób they meet our basic needs before we even make a gesture.

Already, to an increasing degree, we are allowing online stores to dictate to us (sorry – advised), what will meet our expectations. Only 12% consumeróin the UK search for entertainment services by typing in the brand name.

We enter a category and let artificial intelligence engineóin the recommendation, the bestseller listóand playlists have done the rest for us.

The titan brands will not only provide us with an ever-widening range of productsów and services. They will simultaneously collect more and more data, and the exponentially growing ability to cross-pollinate and search for patternsówill make them know more about us than we do ourselves.

Is there anything to be afraid of?

As I was writing the above words, the vision of the Buy n Large Corporation from the movie WALL-E persistently came to mind. The utopia of eternal happiness, simple and effortless life. Dream, whichóry turns out to be a nightmare. Are we also in for a very painful wake-up call?

I don’t know. Whereas you can see that there are several filters between the dystopia of S-F writers and our realityów:

1. Voluntariness – people will decide for themselves what proportion of their freedom they will surrender to a single corporation. And as if we shouldn’t have to explain to ourselves that social networks manipulate our preferences – the concept of human free will will continue to accompany us for some time to come.

2. Regulation – governments will introduce regulations that address the growth of technology companies, acting proactively, anticipating potential threats. And as if not looking at the world in whichógovernments have long since ceased to be guided by the well-being of citizens, and corruption, whether móIn other words, lobbying is the order of the day – you can see that everything can change.

3. Self-improvement – as opposed to Buy’n’Large, brand-titans don’t sell „happiness and convenience”, but „a better version of you”. And this is perhaps the most important róthe difference – because all the technological dystopias show us as a species thatóthe consumer will be fooled by perpetual comfort and effortless living.

What this means for brands

Of course – the biggest conglomerate brands will not be monopolists. They’ll be more like a whale, surrounded by a cloud of podiums and satellitesóin which..ówhich will be symbiotically connected to them. The whale will be móhead to offer their customers a very zróand the services that they provide.. – and a large group of smaller companies would be leading the wayóbusiness, using the infrastructure and technology of a giant.

The greatest strength of such a system, of course, is the vast amount of data on its usersów. But who is going to collect it, process it and finally draw any meaningful conclusions? For this you will need alliances, information exchange processes and their calculation.

As cynical as it sounds – it’s hard to deny that in the development of technological thought, convenience beats safety and trust every time. However, in order to sustain growth, brands will need to ensure they maintain customer trustóif you’re going to entrust more areas of your life to them.

The existence of giant brandsów does not also have to be associated with forced uniformity and one big „Metropolis”. Titanicity means here „multi-niche”. Huge brands will be able to build penetration in many very róThe following are the different groups, segments and niches – thanks to the existence of róof different offerings and brands – While at the same time ensuring profitability, taking advantage of the enormous production capacity.

Every brand is a health brand

Probably anyone who has come across the issue of big data, the prevalence of trackerów – he asked himself „how all this data could be used to make people live better.

The boundary between „of digital servants”, doing what we want, and „digital masters”, któThey tell us what decisions to make „for our own good” is very thin.

The moment is fast approaching when twój fitness tracker refuses toóThe user will not be able to put a candy bar in your shopping cart unless you burn the required number of calories. Or prevent us from pushing the button „Next episode” Seeing that you have an important meeting the next day.

Already today, more than half of allób surveyed around the world predict that they will use technology every day to monitor róaspectóin life.

Brands have always served a function beyond the physical and functional, but have been our „enhancers”.

And not just badge brands such as Chanel or BMW, whichóre openly and even ostentatiously show who their owner would like to be (I look richer driving a new BMW).

We also have a number of brands offering „self-expressive” benefits, or psychological benefits, but not necessarily social benefits (I feel more twó(Canon camera).

Until now, people have worn NIKE shoes to feel physically fitter.

The era is coming when all these brands will really make us better.

Everyone will be his own doctor. „Don’t gouge your symptomsów” will become a thing of the past, because… our bodies, connected to smart devices, will google them for us.

As the zarónno opportunities to diagnose as well as introduce genetic / gene therapies and diets and solutions tailored to our genów. By the late 20s, most people will know their DNA like we know our blood type today.

The devices that track our health will expand to include mirrors that check our temperature and skin conditionóry as well as toilets, examining the chemical composition of our excrementów and advising you on dietary changes (including the replacement of theóWe will be able to make the right productsóin your favorite online store).

But what about the pleasure of? Of course, you won’t be left alone here either – human need „ecstasy” is one of the most difficult to eradicate. Fortunately, science will offer us róalso a growing number of „sweetenerów”, or psychoactive substances that mimic the effects of alcohol, stimulants or drugsóThe following episode will focus on the big data, but without its negative consequencesów.

As a result of this trend, virtually everything we use will have a real impact on our health – starting with the automobileó(in filtering the air and pathogens, in the aforementioned toilets, whichóthat will be able to create our own diets for the following week.

What this means for brands

Brands must remove offerings harmful to health. Yes – we can hope that the era of „glucose-fructose syrup” and aspartame will finally be history. And this applies to bothóin food as in appliances as inóin electronic.

Brands will have to accompany people on their path of self-development. Already today, insurance companies are able to change insurance quotes depending on the outcome ofóin your FitBit – encouraging and rewarding the useróWe are already more than half of all people living in the EU today.

Global Wave „silver surferów”, któThe situation we are witnessing today is only a foretaste of what awaits us in the next decade. The fastest growing demographic group will be „old people who want to feel young”.

Five star citizens

When we read about social rating system used in China – virtually everyone describes it as unambiguously negative, totalitarian and inhumane.

Whatever it is, it is inevitably coming towards us. As the amount of data thatówe feed a system of interconnected devices – is growing róThe number of decisions thatóre can be automated based on this data.

This whole system has come to Europe faster than anyone expected, with restrictions on driving, driving on the road, driving on the sea, and driving on the seaóThe most important of them was a vaccination against COVID-19.

But imagine a car manufacturerów, whichóry can refuseóto sell your product to someone who has less than 100 thousand. followers on Instagram. Sounds terrifying? Let’s wait to see what Supreme will do next year.

Author

Jacek Studziński, senior strategy planner at dentsu Polska

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