Thanks for your interest in the Brandfeed. No worries that you missed it live, we've got the recording up on our site, here: http://landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.article&a...
Thanks!

The author, Frank, asked that we post this reply on his behalf. Thanks! ^JL

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"Mark, thanks for your comments.
I can see how a “purpose-led” approach to branding may be still somewhat ahead of the evolution curve for brands in Asia’s emerging markets, such as China.
But:
If we look at Asia’s more established economies, e.g. South-Korea and Japan and to a degree Taiwan, purpose-led branding is already far more culturally entrenched. And while I agree that the approach to branding in China in many cases is still often driven by a sales-centric marketing approach I have my hopes that China will accelerate, if not leapfrog ahead of the learning curve when it comes to “purpose”. I base my assumptions on the observations of Chinese consumers becoming increasingly informed, demanding, connected and shapers of global trends. Also we all remember recent disruptions in brand trust (tainted baby milk, among many) which may lead to consumers questioning the model of “profits at all costs”. Also, according to Landor’s recent global green brand study http://www.landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.artic... we seen an increasing appetite for sustainability as a value-add to the products they buy- which can be an indicator of a move towards brands with higher purpose.

And as China keeps moving up the ladder of leading global economies, kicking the US off the clean energy pedestal http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-128... and overtake the US in scientific output by 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-128... I think China’s brand visionaries will also leapfrog up the Maslow Pyramid towards purpose-led brands.

—Frank Vial"

When most people think of brand and branding, they think logo. Yet there is so much more to the art and science of generating preference for companies, products and services that is lost in all the fuss about aesthetics. While logo does have an important role in branding, the real power to create or destroy value for businesses...

And if you do take one word and try to use it to link yourself and your audience—you already have something that goes beyond this single word, just by making that connection, you have three points of reference. If that's the case, you'd better have a better idea of what it might be. And an attempt at articulating it, not necessarily only with words.

Well, hello to you! When most people think of brand and branding, they think logo. Yet there is so much more to the art and science of generating preference for companies, products and services that is lost in all the fuss about aesthetics. While logo does have an important role in branding, the real power to create or destroy value for businesses...

Thanks Wayne... we use a modified sIFR technique here on Landor.com, and as with you get pretty good results most of the time, but it still feels like a "hack". We'll be looking closely at the things Sean has outlined in this article.

ADMIN NOTE: this comment was originally posted on Twitter, and the author agreed to let us repost it here:

@PeterRoche (http://twitter.com/PeterRoche) Can AIG shine once more? (http://ff.im/-1SU2W) -- You are the branding gurus, what do you say?

Russ, you might be interested in reading an old Landor article from 1999 called: "My Son Adolf" (http://landor.com/thinking/article/127)

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