The New Rules of Marketing

What Building a Brand Means in the 21st Century

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You can’t escape it. Everywhere, it surrounds you. Brands, cloying, begging, shouting for attention. In a previous life, I used to help run one of the world’s largest marketing and communications groups. Today, we’re going to talk about the new rules of marketing. Before you roll your eyes — this means everything from nonprofits to little personal newsletters, to, yes, big businesses. Relationships will always exist. That’s all we’re really talking about here. And it’s never mattered more.

Because today? This art of building relationships, which is poorly called “marketing” or “branding,” really is different — for many, many reasons. This is — newsflash — the most critical juncture in human history. Welcome to the first Extinction Summer. Did you really think things could go on the old way — slap a clever slogan on a commodity made from fossil fuels?

Nope.

So. First rule. There are thin and thick relationships, and thick ones are better. The biggest change in marketing and branding over the last few years is what’s come to be called “influencers.” You can’t escape them. Open TikTok or YouTube or what have you, and there they are — a veritable army of people who are…famous for…being famous? For what? What is “influencer marketing,” exactly?

Let’s begin with the poor way to use it. That’s building thin relationships. In plainer English, that means riding on said Instafluencer’s fame. That fame is…fragile. It’s not resilient, often. Those audiences tend to come and go, they’re fickle, and there’s another catch here, too. There’s a kind of strange double irony at the heart of influencer marketing. We all know it’s performative, and yet we all play along. We know the influencers are being paid to hawk said products — and yet we pretend, at least audiences do, that there’s a kind of objective critical reality at work. 

Call it the suspension of disbelief, internet style. But that bubble’s easily punctured, and it’s dubious whether it really strengthens brand equity over time, when you say: this influencer can make my brand famous! Or, in marketing speak, “raise awareness”, or just drive clicks and views and so forth. Those are thin relationships — gossamer thin. They can vanish overnight — and they often do. Plenty of brands, big and small, are beginning to pay influencers big bucks — but the results aren’t lasting, enduring, meaningful.

Then there are thick relationships. Let me give you an example. I make music, and there are plenty of music influencers. What do they do? The good ones will do in depth reviews of new instruments, software, technology, give thoughtful reviews, ask questions, do lengthy demonstrations. What do I get? I learn something. I’m being educated, in a way, and so I save myself a trip to the store, or buying and returning something, and in return, I’m learning. That’s a thicker relationship.

It’s funny. We think of influencers as a big innovation, in the marketing world, anyways. But they’re not that far removed from…QVC. Those TV telesales channels. What happens on those? Much the same kind of thing. Demonstrations, sales pitches, explanations of features, and so forth. The difference, of course, is that influencers create the impression that all this is a genuine personal relationship, that brands aren’t paying them, that the demonstrations are earnest and heartfelt. Sometimes they are — but often, they’re not. 

The sales patter isn’t quite at the same level of cocaine-fuelled intensity, but the idea’s not so far removed — and in that sense, influencer marketing is less revolution than evolution. Everyone can have their own QVC now — if you’ve got sales skills. So organizations have to be careful — because building a brand is emphatically not just about selling. It’s about…that word: relationships. In the best sense, communities. Who share values, motivations, aspirations, as well as knowledge, insight, and learning. That kind of relationship between organization and human is what a 21st century brand is made of.