Marketing Review St.Gallen 2 | 2021 "The New World of Brand Communication"

The way brands and consumers interact with each other has changed radically over the past two decades. The main driver of this development is digitalisation: whether social media, platforms, influencer branding, SEO, micro-targeting, programmatic advertising, configurators, apps or mobile marketing – all of these would be unthinkable without digital technologies. Strictly speaking, however, these forms and concepts of communication are by no means new. Rather, they have been part of the established canon of brand communication for many years. Yet we still often treat and describe them as new. Why?

In our view, the primary reason for this lies in the persistent innovativeness of this modern communication environment: no sooner has a channel become established than it is replaced by a new one; no sooner has a segmentation or tracking method become established than it is replaced by a more innovative one; no sooner have forms of presentation or communication styles become conventionalised than they are broken with; and with this constant change, the rules of the game of brand communication also cultivate. Consequently, the new world of brand communication is not new because it is new – it is new because it remains new. And that makes it versatile and interesting – but also challenging.

This issue is dedicated to this challenge. On the one hand, the contributions of experts from science and practice offer a comprehensive overview of the current communication terrain of brands; on the other hand, they address specific questions and approaches for successful navigation through this ever-changing world of brand communication. We wish you an inspiring read!

This text was released in German as the editorial of the current issue of Marketing Review St. Gallen with the topic “The New World of Brand Communication”. You can find the issue now in our shop.