EXTERNAL PRESSURE ON THE BRAND

Let's first take a look at the question of how a brand disappears so easily as markets become more crowded. And what this means for your chances of being picked out.

THE PRESSURE

Together, we're producing increasingly more products, with the variety also continuing to grow. Because, for one, few want to go through life as wallflower.

Many people like to validate their identity with a unique purchase. They want a car that's just that little bit different to the neighbour's, a unique case for their mobile phone, and if possible, a kitchen that says something about who they are. If everyone keeps expressing their personality with products, then this automatically leads to more variety. Businesses are also increasingly better at responding to these demands. They have the technology to allow them to supply tailored goods at an increasingly cheaper price.

Another reason why there are increasingly more products, is digitalisation. In the digital domain, it's pretty easy to make more for less money. Take financial services for example, or subscriptions to telephone companies and energy suppliers. A new pricing structure for your smartphone can be created in a flash and can be introduced to the market relatively quickly. No need to chop down trees or buy in steel. The building blocks of such a product are ones and zeros. They're almost unlimited in availability.

Once you have a good working network and payment system, coming up with a new subscription form every month is easy. And for such a telephone subscription, there's no need to rent an expensive stock warehouse. It only takes up space on the server or within the administrative process. There's also no need for a lorry to make deliveries to the stores, because it can be sold online.

For these kinds of subscriptions, but also for financial products such as an insurance policy or current account, there are few limitations to repeatedly introducing something new to the market. It's no coincidence that banks or telephone companies have dozens, or even hundreds of products on offer.

This rings even more true for brands whose origin is digital. A brand such as the Chinese Wechat has, in a short time, been able to develop from a chat service into a service you can use to order a taxi, get food delivered, play casual games, buy a plane ticket, reserve a cinema ticket, make an appointment at the doctors, send money to your friends, keep track of your fitness targets, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, follow the news, find friends and help recognise music. This fast expansion of the product range is possible because we're dealing with digital services. They are logical, because at the heart of this service is a chatbot, ready to solve everything for you. In the slipstream of this, it seems only natural to offer all kinds of new services. Platforms such as Amazon, Google, Uber, Airbnb and other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Linked-in and Snapchat can also expand the services they offer relatively easily. Not only because a lot of the new services are digital, but also because they have an enormous customer base which allows them to offer new products and services at low acquisition costs.

Wherever digital technology is given a prominent role in product development, the additional costs of producing new products quickly reduce. Once the investment in equipment and people has taken place, it doesn't cost much more to make an additional version. This is a blessing for every product developer. Not hampered by analogue stock costs or growth expectations, he's able to unleash his creativity. Just like a child making castles in the sandpit. There's enough sand, so the more different castles you can make, the better. It doesn't matter if not all the castles are taken, they don't take up much room and if they don't meet expectations: knock them down and just make them again. The sandpit is big enough. The result of all this is that the digital shelves are heaving, and the inboxes, smartphones and cloud servers are filling up.

And we haven't even broached the biggest cause of the new flood of products, namely yourself. Digital technology has made a potential producer of everyone. Anyone with a bit of common sense can make his own fizzy drink, open a second-hand clothes shop or start his own radio station. And that's not to mention all the self-made photos, music, films, games, applications, blogs or apps that we all put out there to the rest of the world on a daily basis. If you're really smart, you can earn money from them too. This is a stimulus for many to continue producing. Resulting in a spectacular increase in the self-made products on offer as well. And it keeps growing. The sum of all these small private initiatives totals an enormous number that just keeps on growing. By no means are all of these initiatives successful. Most do-it- yourselfers have to be satisfied with a small group of followers. In the physical world, these initiatives would have disappeared from the shops a long time ago. But online, they remain available for longer. Someone, somewhere online is interested. And thus, even the most insignificant products remain available. Like scrap metal floating through the digital universe.

It's easy to make something, and even easier to copy something. A new product can be copied in a blink of an eye. Particularly digital products, that are all made with the same abundance of ones and zeros. Hence making it more difficult in the long-term to distinguish yourself in terms of technical qualities.

And so, the importance of brands increases. Because if everyone can more or less make the same content, it's all about how you package it. It's no coincidence that the product range of brands with a digital origin are expanding: the brand is used to give meaning to new services.

You'd think that the influx of new brands is unique to the technology sector. But nothing is further from the truth. There's almost no market where new technology, in combination with the willing investment dollar, doesn't lead to an influx of new brands. Look for example at the fast-moving category in which a concern such as Proctor & Gamble are being besieged by not only more traditional competitors, but start-ups too.

This wealth of products on offer doesn't necessarily have to be a problem for the general public. There are scientists that claim that our brains adapt and can now better deal with multiple signals. There are also digital filters that help reduce what's on offer to clear proportions. But for everyone who has something to offer, and so is dependent on demand, these large amounts can be troublesome.

THE FADE-AWAY DYNAMIC

A fuller market can be a problem for brands. Simple probability calculations show us that with the growth of the number of alternatives, the chance to be picked up on shrinks. There are more alternatives for the same space. Psychological studies confirm this: we find it more difficult to make a choice when faced with an increased number of...