I don't know if following/leading is quite the right way to think about it, because consumers don't appear with fully formed tastes and then find the brand that matches them. What a brand needs to do is become associated strongly with certain ideas, or feelings, or occasions, to the point where it starts to define those things for the people aware of it. Hence the NME throwing a lot of their attention into sponsoring gigs (association with an occasion) and doing the Cool List (association with a value or concept) and running awards (association with alternative-ness, because the awards it sponsors are supposedly different). It's not following the audience, as much as leading it into a fairly pre-determined and unsurprising place.
"Poptimist" is functioning much like the early days of a such a quasi-"brand" (and I don't think there's anything wrong with this). "What a [brand/movement/sensibility] needs to do is become associated strongly with certain ideas, or feelings, or occasions..."
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-02-15 02:56 pm (UTC)Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-02-15 03:02 pm (UTC)Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-02-15 03:06 pm (UTC)