This keynote presenation was given at the annual SDMA conference, Market to the Max, held in Seattle, March, 2009, by Curt Doolittle, CEO, Ascentium

1. Your Brand is Your
Only Real Asset
An exploration into a pure
theory of marketing
Curt Doolittle, CEO Ascentium
Market to the Max, Seattle
March 11, 2009

2. Brand in a social and
economic context
What will happen after
we’ve jumped off the cliff?

3. The Castle is beautiful, but how
did it get there?
Draft #1
Presented to Jean McCarthy
Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008

4. For 2000 years, the only way to raise capital
was to tax

5. Historically, our identities have grown out of our culture

6. And Our cultural identities have been based on our Myths

7. After World War II, Our Myths were created by Advertising

8. And Mass identities were created by Mass Market Brands

9. From the farms to the new
Eden, we all shared the
same suburban dream

10. Our Advertising Myths were Aspirational
(though we never worried about the consequences)

11. And then that ordered world of
uniformity broke apart

12. Customer Loyalty
in the New Age
Our identities were
stolen and now its time
to get them back

13. Our shared common identity
was fragmented by politics,
global communication and
technology.

14. Even National identities began
to give way to brand identities

15. Brands replaced flags as symbols of new shared identities

16. And then, even brand identities
began to shift.

17. From utility to aesthetics: We started changing the
way we consume. We began to define our own brand.

18. Today when with the help of technology and information,
we make up our own minds, our own aesthetic.

19. And this individual
aesthetic we call
Micro Identities

20. And we become our
own brand

21. Brand Measurement
And the falsehood of
measuring anything else

22. In the world of Mass Advertising,
Metrics were easy to define.

23. The Explosion in technology and channels has
produced a lot more data about the brand

24. But there’s a big difference between data and knowledge

25. And knowledge only becomes an
asset when its all about the brand.

26. For at the end of the day,
the brand is the value

27. Changes in
Technology
And its impact on
Consumer behavior

28. Technology believes in objective Truth

29. Marketing believes in subjective Truth

30. It’s a lot harder to measure subjectivity

31. The world of precisely engineered machines is over

32. The Neuron is the tool of the future

33. The Marketing
Organization of
the Future
Beyond illusion in a
Post American dream
universe

34. The time has come to take off
the mask

35. And Stop being afraid of your customers

36. The old way to tell stories
belongs in a book

37. It’s not about mirrors
anymore

38. It’s about seeing, listening
and learning

39. And whomever can do that, will make a big splash

40. www.puretheoryofmarketing.com