Is BRAND NeXT BIG Thing?

One question I have long kept in my mind, and YOU MUST ALSO, is 'What is the next BIG thing?' in business, life, or whatever else. Tonight, I thought BRAND may be it. Of course, I know that BRAND is not a new concept nor used by anyone else. To reach my conclusion, you need my long thoughts.

Very very very long time ago, we are satisfied with the product which works correctly as we expected, or even just works not exactly we expected. In other word, a product of correct 'function' is the only criteria at that time.

In an industrialized world such as mass-production, people wanted cheaper ones if they equally worked. In this period, the 'price' is the constraint to decide whether to buy or not.

Last 2 or 3 decades, 'price' had no more power as before. Everyone knows Japan. Japan's success story is due to 'quality'. High quality products, best selling products. People were willing to over-pay for products of high quality.

In last decade (or a few years), the next big thing after quality has been 'design'. I think 'design' is currently the big thing for a while. Apple's success story is the typica heroic one. This trend will last at least one decade or more. However, we must keep in our mind what is the next after design? For this question, I have been considering. ... And, BRAND can be the answer at this time. My limited creativity keeps me from getting better ones.

As shown in a previous post, Marty Neumeier defined 'Brand is what they say it is, not what you say it is' in his book 'Brand Gap'. If he is correct, I think he is correct, a good brand means they think it is good, and they are willing to buy it with extra prices. Do you catch the idea? If they are eager to buy the product of a good brand, it is the hit one or best-selling one. A good brand may be the complex product of function, (price), quality, design, and so on. Making a good brand -- good feelings about something we want to advertise including ourselves -- is the next step to attain BIG things. IDENTITY is the BIG asset to everyone, including company.

You need not agree with me, but BRAND is very important even though it is not the next BIG thing.