Holding on to the brandrail
Two quotes popped out at me in the last week or so.
The first is from Matt Edgar’s excellent post History is the Handrail:
“History is the handrail for which we reach when knocked off balance by the present day.”
The second is from Doug Rushkoff’s Program or be Programmed
“…the abstraction intrinsic to the digital universe makes us rely more heavily on familiar brands and trusted authorities to gain our bearings. Like tourists in a foreign city sighing in relief at the sight of a Starbucks…”
With my wanton delight at an awkward pun, I’ve started thinking about The Brandrail, a combination of both thoughts.
Are people clinging on to the brands of yesterday simply because so much is is uncertain?
Is it perhaps not love of brands, but fear of the unknown, which is keeping a lot of brands front and centre in our lives?
And what happens when people adjust, and get used to a new a different world?
One to ponder.