Branding: Context, Content and Consequences

The marketing environment both at the side of demand and supply is undergoing a subtle but very profound change. The concept of value, value creation process, and value provider is not what it used to be. The pivot around which the marketing process was built in the industrialization wave used to be the product. Now the free and unhindered movement of men, materials, process and knowledge the parity seem to be dawning on the systems creating ultimate peril for the marketers. The manifestations of this malaise are loyalty erosion, switching and promotion sensitivity. The influence of product element is wearing away leaving marketers to look for edge elsewhere. The value now needs to be liberated and transcended from the narrow confines of the product. The marketer needs to break free from the boundaries imposed by the ‘productness’ of the offering. It is only when the offer is pushed into a higher value orbit, then only a marketer can hope to achieve the desired consequences like the commitment and bonding.