New Economy rant

[Carl Remick]

>From: sawicky at epinet.org (Max Sawicky)
>
>Re: Doug's spoken prose, a few reactions, my general
>agreement notwithstanding . . .
>
>. . . Today, knowledge, not things, rule. . . . This is a version of one of
>the cornerstones of New Paradigm thinking is the curious doctrine that
>"brand equity" -- the financial value that stock markets assign to names
>like Nike and Mickey Mouse -- is a kind of capital . . .
>
>
>I would suggest that hostility to this idea is premised
>on an implicit hostility to mass consumer preferences.  Much
>as I despise Nike, it seems fair to say that if Nike spends
>umpteen billion dollars persuading the public that wearing
>a swoosh is cool, and everyone comes to believe that swoosh
>is cool, well then wearing Nike becomes cool from the consumer's
>standpoint, and that's value.  Hence the brand is a capital
>asset, if we agree to define capital narrowly as something
>that generates benefits over an extended period.

An extended period?  From what I've seen of the fortunes of Seventh Avenue 
clients, the ability of fashion-related enterprises to generate durable 
brand equity is problematic at best.

Carl
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