Ruminating over what to post let me with a few unfinished thoughts running through my mind, and reading portions of the OPEN brand and the Long Tail have given me a few more marbles to roll around this cranium of mine. The initial thoughts I’m having are… well, the OPEN brand makes the case that there is a family of brands out there whose image is defined more by their customers rather than by their marketers or product specialists. It’s an intriguing point of view the validity of which can be seen by looking at brands like REI, Google News and NikeID: Personalization and community contribution is king.

This should come as no surprise- ever since The Long Tail was published we know that business models can be quite successful on catering to the fringe elements, by virtue of the fact that today’s technology allows for customization to the n-th degree. Not only that, but as we see with the example of iTunes such customization will inevitably reveal the nascent individuality in customers formerly used to mainstream offerings.

This then has empowered the consumer to the degree where they now demand that companies cater to them, rather than blithely be affected by advertising, and that is the foundation upon which the OPEN brand is built.