“Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
Casey Stengel
Although this is a smart quote to follow by, especially with today’s growing trends and improving technology, there are plenty of brands to not only learn from, but to keep an eye on in terms of branding .
Forbes went with this idea when creating a list of “Brands to Watch in 2018” Rather than making a generic list, they decided to list companies, each of which were represented by each letter of the alphabet. If you would like to read about each of these companies, feel free to read the full article (link here) otherwise, we’re going to summarize some of the more popular “letters” for those of you who don’t care to read an entire alphabet’s worth of brands.
A → Before even reading this article, we wanted to predict for ourselves which companies would be represented for each letter; and A was one of the more difficult ones as it has so many contenders (like Apple, Airbnb, etc.). However, the top brand ended up being Amazon. This is largely due to the fact that the company is represented in numerous markets rather than just one. From groceries to cloud services to generic everyday products, Amazon had expanded its brand over the years and has the best potential to continue expanding in the following years.
B → Blue Apron is one of the many meal kit and food delivery services that has popped up over the past year or so. As millennials get increasingly busy and awareness about health and wellness when it comes to fitness and what we’re putting in our bodies continues to increase, these quick, easy, and healthy alternatives to typical grocery shopping or eating out has become the ideal solution. We suspect the popularity of these types of services will continue to expand and grow throughout the next few years.
F → Here, Ford and FedEx are some companies that originally came to mind; but the main brand here was (no surprise) Facebook. The company has made a comeback over the last couple of years with additional features such as the “Watch video” options and continuous acquisitions; but don’t take our word for it. The article clearly lays out the facts that “nearly 200 million U.S, adult users spend an average of 41 minutes a day on Facebook.” This alone proves that the brand has truly gained recognition, and when you consider its growth, can only imagine what the brand will amount to in the upcoming years.
M → For M, Forbes cheated jsut a bit, rather than naming the brand itself they named Tesla’s Model 3. However, because Model 3 is undoubtedly Tesla’s most popular model, we decided to let it slide. The company currently has over 50,000 pre-orders and continues to add on average about 1,8000 people a day. Of course, becasue of these massive numbers there are some major concerns about whether or not Tesla will be able to keep up with the major demand for model 3s as they currently are only able to produce about 1,000 models per week. Overall, as Tesla gets closer and closer to a fully auto-piloted vehicle being legal, demand and brand awareness is expected to continue on the upward slope it is currently on.
P → With this letter, we think Patagonia or Procter & Gamble, but lo and behold, Peloton took the lead with this letter. With the health and fitness trend booming, what better way to enter the industry than introducing a product that can help you get healthy on your own time all in the comfort of your own home. However, this would not have been as successful as it has become within the last few months if it wasn’t for the backing of SoulCycle and Flywheel, both of which are strong names within the fitness and health industry. These, in combination with its advanced technology, are the sources behind why this brand has extreme potential to continue its growth and only strengthen its brand name. In other words, keep your eyes on this as the months go by because this company has not only created a product, but a community — which is one aspect to strongly consider when wanting to build up your brand.
U → Because there aren’t too many companies out there starting with the letter U, it’s no surprise that Uber is the top contendor. Although they’ve recently struggled with some major company culture issues, they’ve recently hired a new CEO, Dara Khosrowshai, to address those issues. If Khosrowshai is able to get these issues under control it is likely they will coninue on the successful path they’ve paved the past few years.
So although we believe Casey Stengel has some very sound advice when it comes to making predictions, we believe it’s still valuable to keep an eye on the top brands and ask yourself what is it that they’re doing that separates them from their competition? Creating a strong and memorable brand comes down to creating value that no other competitor is able to offer your customer. It is evident that all 26 of these companies have managed to accomplish this in one form or another.