Branding is dead

Branding is irrelevant in the age of the social networks. The consumer wants facts, not a fictional story about a product, a brand or a company, says the American media theorist, public speaker and author, Douglas Rushkoff, in this interview with MarketMagazine.

The American author and public speaker Douglas Rushkoff is an adviser on cultural affaires, not only to the United Nation, but also for corporate businesses. Rushkoff is often called in as a consultant to work with marketing companies and other businesses. His role is pretty clear. Business people want Rushkoff to express something that runs contrary to the public opinion. Something provocative, something out of the ordinary. The opposite of what most people in the profession dare to say.
Just like the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Emperor’s New Clothes.

So there here he is in 2011 at Pivot, a conference on branding, the last speaker at the event. Earlier in the day a lot of marketing professionals has talked about their new “Twitter strategy” and their “Facebook branding efforts” and so on. And then Douglas Rushkoff take the stage with a bottle of water in his hand and tells the