Battle of the brands

In the ’80s, the ascendancy of the baby boomer shook up retail markets. Firms were put on notice that consumers were no longer passive, accepting everything as offered. The Internet brought expectations that power would finally be consolidated in the hands of consumers and ties to brands would diminish. Instead, the opposite seemed to happen. Today, conventional wisdom says that brands no longer belong solely to firms.

“[The] burgeoning power of the consumer is really a manifestation of the increasing availability and comparability of information.”
CHARLES PERROTTET, an executive at US consultants The Futures Group International, writes in 1994 that increasingly knowledgeable consumers will force retailers to provide “what they want, when they want it and where it is convenient”

“If there is only room for a tiny number of global brands, then the race to establish them is one of strategic importance.”
PETER WARBURTON, British economist, says in 2000 that the proliferation of information and newly available products will become so intense that consumers will increasingly seek the safety of leading brands

“The choice of products and services available is multiplying, but at the same time consumers have become more skeptical about claims made for products. In today’s marketplace, consumers have the power to pick and choose as never before.”
THE ECONOMIST reviews the marketplace in early 2005 and announces “the customer is king”

“What [if anything] can marketers do to affect today’s emboldened and empowered consumers? To gain any control over the one thing we most want to command — profits — we must first give even more control to the consumer.”
MARSHA LINDSAY, a US ad executive, argues in 2006 that surrendering control to consumers is now the only way for brands to move ahead

Steve Brearton