While written primarily about consumer product brands ("The main purpose of brand marketing is to make commodities aspirational..." -ouch) this summary of how brand marketing is changing is very useful to anyone who wants to have their message heard.

Ana Andjelic watches and reports on how changing values change business, and she is very good at it. Amongst other changes she's noticed are a dozen shifts in the new brand marketing operating system. Here's four that jump out for me: 



She says that the new brand marketing is "bottoms-up rather than top-down, as brand marketing has been known for; circular rather than linear; collaborative rather than promotional; value-creating rather than an overhead; and future-facing rather than immediate.

"The new brand marketing is less about communicating (just) the brand identity and values and more about activating this identity and values as a consistent, encompassing, and entertaining brand world that people aspire to be part of and identify with."

Article: New Rules of Brand Marketing