Brands are obsessed with appearing cool; therefore, they capture and mine youth

Brands must continuously grow and 
regenerate, otherwise they will die.
We spend our entire lives surrounded by brands. 
Our streets and public spaces are peppered with 
advertisements, our sporting events and heroes 
sponsored by brands, and even the clothes we 
wear are often covered by brand names and 
logos.
Brands are ubiquitous in our culture precisely 
because, to survive, they need to be constantly 
and aggressively advertised and marketed. They 
must constantly align themselves with changing 
demographics and new trends, such as the rise 
of alternative music in the early 1990s, otherwise 
customers become disinterested and the brands 
die. As one advertising executive stated, 
“Consumers are like roaches – you spray them 
and spray them and they get immune after a 
while.” Levi Strauss, once considered to be one 
of the coolest brands, failed to improve and 
update its image and marketing strategy and 
suffered an alarming slip in sales while its 
competitors moved forward.
Brands find themselves in this powerful yet 
precarious position because their success 
depends far more on the popularity and 
‘coolness’ of their name than on their actual 
products.
Hence, to survive, a brand must be highly visible 
in every area of society. It has to connect to 
consumers in every sphere of life and on 
multiple levels, and it must continuously renew 
these connections. In schools and universities, 
for example, an increasing number of brands are 
not only sponsoring sports equipment, canteen 
spaces and the like; they are also getting 
involved in the curriculum itself. Brands sponsor 
research grants and even have their products 
appear as examples in exam questions.

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Brands must continuously grow and regenerate, 
otherwise they will die.