Today’s brand landscape
The last two decades have been critical to the brand environment that we see now. Many of today’s larger global brands have been formed through a more recent history of mergers and acquisitions, particularly since the 1990s. The dot-com wave of the late 1990s also gave birth to new online brands – those with little substance behind them failed to survive when the dot-com bubble burst. Common government tactics, such as the deregulation of industries like postal services, telecoms and railways, have also opened up particular sectors for competition and the emergence of new brands. The more recent burgeoning of private equity funds and venture capital has enabled smaller successful brands to grow quickly through cash injections. And, of course, the growth of the media over the past two decades has also influenced brand ubiquity.