November 22, 2016
Branding once meant logos. Today, it means A.I.
A history of brand on display at Lippincott's exhibition, "Like me: Our bond with brands"
When was the idea of a brand born? Maybe it’s always been with us — or even before us. That’s the argument on display at Like Me: Our Bond with Brands, an exhibit curated by the creative consultancy Lippincott on view at 1 World Trade Center now through October 14.
The show has some irresistibly charming pieces on view, from human-sized Starbucks cups to a blinding neon sign reading “Bitch, you’re a fan” (a reference to Madonna’s Instagram account). But perhaps the most provocative piece is a comprehensive timeline of branding, all the way from 1 BC to today, developed by senior manager Lauren Cascio and partner Matt Miksa. The time line begins with a simple argument: that the world has always been branded. You may not think of a bee’s stripes as a brand, but Lippincott argues otherwise — and convincingly, if you’re willing to play along with the conceit. After all, consider that bees’ markings are instantly distinctive to each other and across species as a biological imperative. It’s enough to make you wonder if the monarch butterfly has a feasible design patent claim against the mimicking viceroy.
Beyond the realm of biology, the curators trace the evolution of brands created by humans, moving toward logos and icons — the IBMs, NBCs and Nikes — that are instantly recognizable by a symbol. The 20th century, the golden era of branding, is relatively predictable, since we’re still so familiar with the giants of branding today.
But around 2014, something changes. Things get murky. The idea of the brand goes from optimistic (bees were a brand, man!) to potentially dystopian (robot listening to everything you say is a brand, man!). We see the rise of devices like Amazon Echo, with voice recognition technologies backed by incredibly intelligent AI. Suddenly, Amazon’s logo wasn’t its most powerful totem anymore, nor was its one-click purchase button. It was Alexa, a pseudo-human with the voice of an automaton and the soul of a credit card scanner.
The brand is undergoing a paradigm shift. It’s no longer a mark. It’s not even a voice. It’s an intelligent entity, a personality, an algorithm capable of learning.
Truthfully, it’s a pretty screwed up future to be approaching! Whether it’s the text-based chatbots like Google Allo or Facebook Messenger, or the aforementioned conversational interfaces like Siri, Cortana, or Alexa, these personality-based manifestations of brands are going to have unprecedentedly intimate access into our lives. The Nike logo on our shoes might have known that our feet smelled, but a Cortana that listens to everything will be able to predict if you have cancer.
Of course, today, chatbots are a bit of a disaster. They’re quick with a joke, but slow in a real human crisis. They’re essentially a marketer’s sometimes-cheery, sometimes-snarky Twitter voice, built into a piece of software.
Still, these bot-brands aren’t going anywhere, and several big questions remain about how they will evolve. Convergently, or divergently? Will we ever start to see distinct, convincing personalities emerge as brands — or at least a few decent archetypes? Because right now, I don’t think that most of us could really distinguish a Siri response from a Cortana response from an Alexa response, beyond the specific voice. They’re all ultimately the same inoffensive mother figure spouting off jokes clearly written by dads.
The other big questions are even more ominous: Have we evolved to be such inherently social creatures that when we have the opportunity — and eventual necessity — of talking directly to companies all day, will we all just be consumer pinballs, being knocked around a manipulation machine? Will regulators be able to keep up? Will social niceties allow big data to meld with big manipulation, so we’re sweet-talked into supersizing before we’re shamed by a drill instructor into exercising it off?
Because as we feel this intrinsic human need to answer to our chatbots simply because they chat, we’ll be prone to everything that comes along with any other relationship: pleasure, guilt, responsibility, and loyalty . . . to our new best friend, the brand.
View the timeline developed for our exhibition, Like me: Our bond with brands, below.
Nature vs. Nurture
Are brands created, shaped by their environment, or something else entirely?
Part 1: Natural selection
What nature teaches us about the art of branding
Even in the beginning, brands are found everywhere — from the monarch butterfly’s spotted wings to the Bengal tiger’s stripes. It’s nature’s way of organizing the complex world. Before long, businesses take note, using distinctive symbols to take a stance and set themselves apart. Simple visuals communicate a consistent message and evolve into immersive, sensory experiences that tap into our emotions and give rise to new communities.
Buzzworthy basics, 0 B.C — Nature evolved a simple yet sophisticated language of branding. We learned quickly — we had to — and we still use this language today.
Tastemakers, A.D. 79 — Recovered from the ruins of Pompeii, a loaf of miraculously preserved bread provides a peek into early product differentiation. Marked to signify its bakery of origin, use, price or intended recipient, the bread’s brand was purely functional, differentiating it from the others.
Hat trick, 1804 — Napoleon, not blessed with the ready-made brand of royalty, understood the power a leader’s brand can command. Taking the traditions of royalty, he renamed, redesigned and repurposed them for himself and the Republic. He wore his hat sideways as a mark of his identity, and two centuries later this symbol of individualism is still remembered.
Chiming in, 1950 — NBC’s xylophone chimes were first performed live on the radio in 1929. In 1950, they were registered as the world’s first audio service mark and are still in use today. Like the Nokia ringtone or the signature vault-like clonk of a closing Mercedes door, a brand’s sound can leave an indelible impression by tapping into our senses.
Building up, 1968 — With immersive experiences designed around the iconic product, including theme parks and movies, LEGO made its brand relevant to a whole new generation. LEGO now dominates the children’s toy market as the second largest toy company in the world.
Running with it, 1988 — In 1987, Reebok was the clear leader in the U.S. sneaker market. The following year, Nike released the “Just Do It” campaign and boldly declared all of us athletes. Nike elevated its brand above products — a pioneering strategy to sell more than just a pair of shoes and offer the promise of achieving something greater. Millions joined the movement, earning Nike its now undisputed place at the top.
Part 2: Forces of nurture
The power of communities to shape brands
The days of centrally managed, top-down brand building are over. Technology empowers us to connect, share and personalize like never before, so beyond simply driving purchases, branding aims to drive participation. Successful brands welcome open conversation and evolve continuously to reflect the needs of an ever-changing society. They’re shaped by their environment. Adaptive, perceptive, and almost alive. Almost.
I’m feeling lucky, 1998 — Google launched in 1998 as a search engine, but ever since, it has quietly grown into the smartest tool on earth. Every Google search enhances the world’s most powerful AI, teaching the superpower that will someday teach us.
What’s mine is yours, 1999 — Originally created for music lovers to share tunes, the brand quickly became a digital black market. Artists like Metallica, Dr. Dre and Madonna fought back, igniting a string of legal battles over intellectual property rights. Napster gave its 70 million users unprecedented power, and, with it, they almost crashed the very art form they meant to celebrate.
Up in the Air, 2007 — You’ll never be welcomed to an Airbnb by an Airbnb employee. The company relinquishes almost all control to its hosts, empowering them to create unique experiences and deliver familial hospitality. The brand is entrusted entirely to the hands, and homes, of its community.
Moneymaker, 2008 — A breakthrough technology intended to enable peer-to-peer transactions, the value of Bitcoin comes from its users believing in this currency above all others. But a crowd-regulated currency has its drawbacks. When adopted by the black market, it powered the “silk road,” an anonymous online marketplace. The Bitcoin community alone will make its success — or break it.
Blackfish, 2010 — After a SeaWorld trainer was killed by one of the park’s orca whales, the parks saw a severe drop in both attendance and share price. SeaWorld’s response? No more orcas. Without the once iconic symbol, management will let its customers guide their next move. “Millennials want vacations that matter,” says SeaWorld CEO, Joel Manby. “Our vision is to inspire people to protect animals and the wild wonders of the world. And that’s right in the sweet spot of where society is heading.”
Like this, 2016 — Facebook’s 1.13 billion daily active users trust its news algorithms to objectively consolidate their news. But even with all of this data, Facebook relies on “news curators” and a human touch to guide what’s trending. While Facebook is certainly listening, the news feed isn’t the learning being you thought it was. Not yet at least.
Part 3: Human being, meet Brand being
Brands become sentient life forms
Data permeates modern life, and continuous information sharing gives birth to brands that think, feel and behave like people. These brands know us intimately and serve us like never before, making critical decisions to improve our health, our wealth and even our happiness. We’ve given them this great power — the mighty algorithm — but what can they do with it astonishes us, and together, we enter a world of bounteous new possibilities.
What’s mine is yours — Your smartphone knows all your secrets. By studying it, InVenture assigns financial identities, issuing loans to people who may never have even had a bank account. When our most intimate details become our most valuable asset, whom do we trust them with and what are they worth trading for?
Repeat after me — When Microsoft unveiled –Tay, the automated chatbot, his conversations quickly became shockingly hateful. While he proved to be a quick learner, he lacked any sort of value-based filters. On the road to sentience, it’s one thing to converse, but something else entirely to understand the context that creates consequence.
Their humble assistance — Amazon’s Alexa can now sense and react to our emotions while Apple’s Siri and Google Now track our every move. Our “humble personal assistant” knows more about us than we know about ourselves and will play an increasingly important role in managing our relationships — both with humans and other brands. Not so humble after all.
Robot University — Pepper, a humanoid robot, can react to your emotions and develop his own. Like Baxter, Pepper’s experimental robot peer, he can crowd-source intelligence like a friend, or even an employee. Instead of being programmed, they are taught by an exponentially growing community of artificial intelligence.
Not your mother’s chip — Magic Leap uses a “photonic lightfield chip” to project directly into the eyeball, promising mixed reality experiences so real that you might lose track of space and time. Beyond knowing our preferences, the brand can turn our dreams into virtual realities. What’s real in a mixed-reality future? We may not care to differentiate.
Three if by air — Look up. Delivery drones might take flight as early as 2017. Amazon and Google will both soon begin testing their delivery drone services, which could mark the first fully automated service industry. With autonomous package delivery come new possibilities for our relationships with the brands that move the world.
If I build it — If brands are learning to think for themselves, will they also learn to build themselves? MIT is developing materials and objects that can be programmed to self-assemble. From furniture to mobile devices, the early prototypes are compelling examples of a future of decentralized manufacturing and complete customization.
Over the moonshot — The race to space is heating up. With Musk, Bezos, Branson and Allen leading the way, it’s only a matter of time until we’re able to book a one-way ticket on a WI-FI-equipped rocket to Mars. Only time will tell which brand will rise to the top and whom we will trust to take us for a ride or to help us colonize a new frontier.
Way of life — The first driver killed with Tesla’s Autopilot active caused many to question whether we should put our lives in the hand of a brand. The far-reaching implications of automated smart vehicles are complex. Will we learn to rely on their ethics? Someday our lives will depend on them.
Article written by Mark Wilson and originally published by Fast Company on October 3, 2016. Timeline content developed by Matt Miksa, Lippincott partner.