AI is poised to usher in the fourth era of branding
We have entered the fourth Industrial Revolution. The first saw a shift from a rural to an urban economy and the adoption of machine-led production. The second saw the move to mass production and assembly lines; the third was digital. Today, we are entering the age of artificial intelligence.
Branding emerged from the second Industrial Revolution. Since then, it has had its own four eras. The original era was the birth of the age of products, epitomized by Coca-Cola, Marlboro and Ford. In the second era, service brands came to the fore, including financial services, transport and utility brands. The technologies that drove the digital revolution were mirrored by the growth of digital brands, which shaped the third era of branding. The leading brands here make for a familiar list: they include companies such as Amazon, eBay and Microsoft. Such companies rapidly became the world’s most valuable brands.
Today, the emergence of AI is ushering in another era in marketing. We are entering a new age of branding, characterized by empathy and intelligence. It may prove to be a genuine revolution. One of the biggest implications is likely to be better and deeper personalization. AI’s capacity to analyze huge amounts of data on individuals will allow the creation of much more tailored experiences. Amazon’s recommendations for other products based on your shopping history, and Netflix’s suggestion of content based on past viewing habits, could quickly seem basic and out of date. If branding becomes more personal and less social, our fundamental ideas about what branding are likely to be rewritten, especially if a new type of mass production emerges.
At a practical level, AI’s ability to handle repetitive tasks at scale will mean that time and resources can be freed up, allowing marketers to focus on more creative and strategic work. Automation is already commonplace for scheduling social media posts, responding to customer emails and analyzing feedback. Yet there is a negative side: it may result in less work and fewer jobs.
Creative content work is unlikely to shift back entirely to humans, as AI already generates marketing copy, blog posts, images and video content, and can speedily create logos, color palettes and visual identities that adapt to different platforms. AI can also power AR tools that are creating immersive experiences for customers in retail, events, tourism and education. It is moving heavily into market research: AI tools can assess attitudes towards brands, analyzing consumer feedback and reviews, as well as social media mentions of a brand. And it is increasingly used in company chatbots: when customers interact with a brand, their experiences are already commonly shaped by AI, not by other humans.
Given the speed of developments in AI, perhaps the biggest outstanding question is whether AI’s role in tactical marketing operations will evolve. Will AI become a strategic partner, not just an acceleration tool? Will it move beyond data analytics, lower-level applications and recommendation systems, into actively participating in high-level planning and decision-making?
The AI industrial revolution is only just getting under way. AI’s impact on marketing and branding could be profound – and the brands that best understand its possibilities will likely be the ones that shape the new era.
Giles Lury is an independent brand consultant and writer
