デジタル社会におけるブランドのあり方

抄録

The chief theme of this issue is the terms “Digital” and “brand,” based on our fundamental question of how brands are growing under the current digital environment. Consistent with this theme, we would like to consider two recent upheavals with respect to brands. The first is so-called “Core Marketing,” which advocates focusing on core customers who account for approximately 80 percent of total sales, based on the Pareto principle. This is quite persuasive, if the underpinning assumption is right. However, Sharp (2010) has recently reported that in most industries, these core customers are responsible for only about fifty percent of a brand’s sales. If this is correct, the fundamental logic of fan marketing is compromised. The second upheaval relates to the emergence of many “Digital Native Vertical Brands (DNVB)”, such as WP, Bonobos, Everlane, Glossier, etc. Our question is: from the perspective of the relationship between brands and their customers, what are the key differences between these DNVB and traditional brands? Our contributors to this issue discuss these highly important concerns.