Brand building in the digital age: The ongoing battle for customer influence

Social media and the digital era have created major challenges for brand managers. Brand strategies need to reflect this new era, but few do. Indeed, nothing has threatened the very foundations of brands more than technology, which has fundamentally and indefinitely altered the relationship between consumers and brands by empowering consumers like never before, while stripping brands of the ‘control’ they once took for granted. To survive, brands need to think in terms of influence. But influence can neither be assumed nor bought — it has to be earned. This paper discusses five now defunct branding assumptions and why they no longer apply. It then offers five new principles for building brand influence in the modern digital world.