Marketing is all about value, and messaging is only one part of this. Another part is services, and yet another the branded utilities (and so on and so forth).

In order to create value we have to do as Alex Bogusky has mentioned: We need to identify the brand inside a framework of culture. (Seth Godin also mentions this in his book All Marketers Are Liars)

As we have seen many times over, a brand is not a word (or three), it’s a state of mind, a collective mindset. Asking people to articulate this emotional, subconscious reference will return a range of descriptions reflecting the capacity of the participant to articulate his or her feelings.

In that sense; the brands as ideas of culture, I’m really liking this quote By Scott Goodson and Chip Walker from the Contagious blog:

The first thing marketers need in this environment is a harder-working idea, one that operates in culture rather than in a product category, and lets consumers rethink your competitive frame of reference, defining it more broadly.