Yet branding’s footprint is unlikely to be downsized soon. Attempts to put precise values on brands may be a bit spurious: Millward Brown, a consulting firm, argues that the top 100 brands worldwide were worth $2.6 trillion in 2013, up 7% on the previous year. But brands are certainly worth a lot of money. Mr Olins recognised two great truths about the modern capitalist economy. The first is that the most precious resource in a noisy, crowded market is people’s attention. The second is that consumers are not just looking for utility in the things they buy. They are also looking for meaning. “In the absence of a spiritual mentor,” he once declared, with his signature nonchalance, “the idea of what the brand stands for—‘Just Do It’, or whatever it is—is a substitute.”
