I read the news today. The New York Times ran a cover story a couple of Sundays ago in the magazine about the death of the national brand. Tivo and boxes like it give viewers the ability to skip the commercials. A recent Business 2.0 cover whines about One to One's failure to deliver on the promise of automated personalized customer service.
Brands are in trouble.
Big media is more expensive and less effective than it's ever been. Unit loads are at an all time high, yet metrics from Arbitron and Nielsen show radio listening and network TV viewing down. I don't know. I know that a cluttered environment is more confusing to the consumer. It's harder than ever to stand out from the noise particularly when boxes like Tivo are letting people skip the noise all together.