The Long Tail: Brands: response:

…my point about brands becoming people rather than products or companies is specific to long tail markets. In short tail markets, such as traditional retail, I imagine that the usual brands will continue to dominate for a good long time.

Second, here’s a little more detail on the role of people as “branded filters” in the long tail: There are, as it happens, three main long tail businesses: filters, aggregators and producers. Each of those will have its own sort of brands, but those brands are all related in that they’re increasingly about real people, rather than abstract advertising messages, invented characters or slogans.