Acerca das marcas que querem viver à sombra da bananeira

Ao longo dos anos tenho aqui demonstrado a minha irritação com a actuação da Centromarca. As marcas comportam-se como nobres arruinados que querem continuar a ser respeitados, apesar do fundamento para o respeito já ter, muitas vezes, desaparecido.
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Slywotzky e Weber em "The Upside" têm um capítulo que acho adequado aos protestos da Centromarca: "Powerful, Proud, and Vulnerable"
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"Brands originate as an attempt to escape from risk. Consumers and even corporate buyers like brands because they offer a guarantee of quality.
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And companies like brands because they not only create a price premium, a volume premium, and positive word of mouth but also offer partial protection from competition - or at least appear to do so. At their peak, brands always seem impregnable.
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Therein lies the risk. The very strength of a great brand infects the thinking of its owners, leading to misjudjments that are often fatal. Companies overrely on their brands. Thinking they are invulnerable, they underinvest in them, treating brand value as an inexhaustible bank account that needs little replenishing, no matter how many checks are drawn against it, or squander money on "brand investments" that actually do little to support the brand. They ignore or misundertand the vital interrelationship among brand, product, and business design that, as we'll see in this chapter, determines the long-term value of a brand.
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As a result, brand risk mounts - usually in ways that even smart, hardworking business practiccioners fail to recognize.
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Brand risk can strike in two basic forms: brand collapse (very dramatic, very clear) and brand erosion (slower, more subtle, but just as costly).
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The point is not that brands are dead or have become valueless. But brands alone have less power to create and retain loyal customers than they once did. As long as you think of brands as merely sending a signal about positioning or image, you cannot solve the brand risk problem. Today, investing in your brand requires building and servicing great products and developing a great business design that is consistent with and supports a relevant and appealing brand signal."