While the rules of branding are universal, the contexts in which these are applied change from categories, to customers, to geographies, and most importantly, socio-political frameworks.
In the rapidly evolving world that we inhabit with overnight technologies, new mediums of expression, newer art forms, new product categories, communities built in and around unusual areas, not just behaviors and lifestyles but the social & political order are impacted, thus ultimately changing cultural discourses.
Brands are no longer just mediums of functional fulfilment. The expectations out of them have moved beyond that long ago. Like all mediums of expression that are vehicles to find meanings for ourselves, brands too are expected to keep in touch with the changes sweeping across us and reflect our times and changing cultural landscape.
The consumer is not consuming mindlessly anymore. And for brands, there is not much space left for differing functionally. They need to differentiate by making themselves relevant to the times that consumers live in, by helping consumers express their points of view through the brand.
Brands now therefore have the triple purpose of fulfilling a functional need, being mediums of expressions, and being the vehicles that help consumers find meaning for themselves.