By R.Sridhar

What will the discipline of brand-management be like in this millennium? What kind of brand-management structures will companies have? What kind of skills will brand managers require? The first instinct is to shrug one's shoulders, and say, how would I know? But, may be, there is some way in which one can form a hypothesis, even if one does not have any concrete answers. The person who came to my rescue was Stephen King, who said Factories make products, Consumers buy Brands.

If somebody is prepared to walk a mile for a Camel, it is not just the product, but largely the feelings, emotions, and relationships associated with the brand. And that's what people are buying and paying for-sometimes even paying a premium. It occurred to me that to imagine what brand management will be like in the future, the first step could be imagining the role of feelings, emotions, and relationships in the lives of people. What would people value and cherish most? I asked this question to 5 people. Here's what I have.

POINT OF VIEW I. ''Marriage is an institution that has lasted through 2 millenniums, and will continue as long as society exists. But it will play a less important role in fulfilling the concept of lineage or economic dependability. These will impact emotions like love, tolerance, and trust.''

POINT OF VIEW II. ''I see good news is, increasingly, shared by e-mail, and bad news by shouting at people. Freedom is what people will be willing to pay for. Emotional and physical space is what they will be willing to pay for most.''

POINT OF VIEW III. ''The millennium will be a good excuse for people to actually renew their emotional commitments to each other. May be they'll actually have more time, with technology making lives so much easier. Marriage will be cherished.''

POINT OF VIEW IV. ''The fear of technology will push us to consciously spend more time and effort on human issues. Emotions haven't changed in a 100 years, and they won't change ever. Demonstrations of love will change from weekly letters to daily e-mails. Relationships will be valued even more.''

POINT OF VIEW V. ''Maybe brands linked to emotions may work harder. They may represent the emotions that an individual can really bank on rather than the flighty frailty-laden human connections that may lead to disenchantment, disappointment, and betrayal.''

What comes out is loud and clear. There is no life without feelings, emotions, and relationships, no matter how technologically advanced we might be. There is also a belief that the information society will not last forever, and that we have entered a new era that will see us move from information to imagination.

Consider this example cited by Rolf Jensen, of the Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies: back in 1990, nearly all Danes bought eggs from caged hens. A select few purchased eggs that came from free-range hens living on organic farms, but this was only a small percentage since these eggs cost twice as much as ''industrial'' eggs. In 1999, more than half the eggs sold in Danish supermarkets came from free-range hens. The product is, essentially, the same; yet, the consumer yearns for a story of rural romanticism, and is willing to pay the price.

According to Rolf Jensen, we are in the market for stories, for friendship, for caring, for lifestyle, for peace of mind, and for attitudes. We buy emotions. Not just products. He predicts that it will be more so in the future. He quotes the motor-cycle category as evidence. For several decades, Harley-Davidson was the only motorcycle made in America. Japanese competition put the Indian out of production in the 1950s, and threatened even the proud and prestigious European motorcycle legends. Japanese motorbikes were cheaper and dependable, and you never got grease on your pants. But things have changed. Triumph and Norton, those tried-and-true British bikes, are, once again, being exported to the US where the Indian bikes are once again being produced. It seems that these American and European motorcycles, so steeped in tradition, can tell a better story than their Japanese competitors.

If this is already the case today, it will be even more so tomorrow. Stories have always been the key motivation in making a purchase, fixing a deal, and raising one's level of effectiveness in the world. We are seduced by stories, more than by quality or price. Apple is the story of outlaw computing. Fedex is the story of promises kept.

Story-telling seems to be working in another area. Wise-heads in the arcane world of customer research are onto storytelling too. They advocate far more probing research than ever before, advising companies to elicit real-life stories from customers. About how they behave and what they feel. The notion may seem like a leap into the unknown, but some companies have discovered that these methods work. Great service and, ultimately, breakthrough products have resulted.

If marketing is going to be about selling fantasies and stories, and creating new experiences, what would brand-management be like? To me, it seems as if everybody in marketing would think and act like they are in the entertainment industry. So, Levers could be like a huge entertainment company. Instead of Mickey and Donald, they have characters like Surf and Liril and Walls. That you can't bore people into buying will become more evident. There could be a major theme-park where you will bathe in a Liril waterfall!

The emphasis will be on creating myths, stories, and rituals around brands. Brand-managers can no longer depend on their agencies to create such stories. They must be good at creating these stories themselves. So, MBA courses in marketing will focus on creativity, imagination, ideas, and innovation. The ability to look at numbers, and analyse them will be crucial, but not sufficient. MBAs must be able to relate to people.

Brand management groups will be structured like movie companies or TV production houses. The CEOs of big brand companies will be like media moghuls. Brands might actually produce feature films built around their myths and character. Some may even own the TV channel and get into programming. Because, as a channel, you could carry advertising from the less-affluent brands and subsidise the marketing of your own brands.

Great brand managers will be sought after like famous directors and scriptwriters.As a brand manager, if you turn out to be like George Lucas, you will become an icon yourself. Factories will continue to make products. People will buy stories. If your brand must flourish in this millennium, Have Story, Will Sell could well be the mantra to go with.

R. Sridhar is the CEO of the Ogilvy counsulting

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