Product Equals Brand

John Maeda's post "The Product is the Message; The Message is the Product" takes a look at the consumer electronics industry as an example of a major shift in product development and marketing communications that's going on right now. My own version of this is "the product equals the brand". A brand is basically a promise to deliver some set amount or quality of value. For instance, McDonald's brand promises quick service, tasty if unhealthy food and reasonable prices. How well that brand promise is experienced by the consumer determines whether the brand promise is true or false, whether it is a kept or broken promise.

In today's consumer culture, it is very difficult to break a brand promise and keep it a secret. People talk and technology is amplifying their voices. The Kryptonite lock fiasco is one of the better known examples of this. What that means, it that no amount of brand communication or advertising can reverse or contradict the consumer's actual experience of the product. This is what makes it so critical that there by a holistic unity between the messages companies create and propagate and the actual experiences consumers have once they use the product. Any cognitive dissonance created by a brand/product mismatch will be instantly recognized and, today, instantly communicated to the broader audience.