What I am about to say is inspired by the discussion from my MBA Internet marketing class. I was showing examples of RSS and XML technology, when a student named Natalie raised the question of what all this could mean to a business. The ensuing discussion concluded that the meaning of brand and marketing will change dramatically from what it is now now.
With semantic-based XML and RSS technologies, it is infinitely easier to pull together information on a particular topic from all over the Web into one central location. Websites such as Kayak.com have already demonstrated this concept by “researching” across a wide range of websites to find its users the best deal in travel. The news panel on the right side of this page is another illustration of the concept. All of this information aggregation and (re)classification means that existing information and services provided by known brand names (e.g., CNN, Business Week) can be shuffled and repackaged to create a new service shaped by its own creator, with or without any new content being added. The outcome is potential “generification” of brand names into mass components that consumers and resellers can mix and match to create their own “product”.
The best analogy of this business model in the offline world is that of a concierge or a tour guide. The concierge does not necessarily create a new scenery but rather put together existing events, worthwhile sights, and palatable local eateries into an unforgettable experience for the visitor. The value added is the knowledge the concierge has about what is available in the area and about what the visitor is looking for.
What this traditional business model shows is the ultimate focus on value creation and need satisfaction. Whoever can satisfy a consumer’s idiosyncratic needs better than everyone else will win the consumer’s heart. While this focus on value creation is nothing new to business, the next decade of generic services will make this even more important. What we will see is information/service aggregators collaborating and competing with each other by pulling together various mass components to create the best value for the user; and traditional brand names, on the other hand, will excel by providing quality components for these aggregators in an “Intel Inside” fashion.