Global brands must adopt a new, co-creation model to succeed in the future. That’s the conclusion of the latest Future Perspectives whitepaper from The Futures Company, entitled, The Future of Global Brands in an Uncertain World: Co-Creation as the Local Pathway to Global Ascendancy.

Looking both at the recent history of global brands, and the near-term future of the global marketplace, the report explores the ongoing tensions between the global demands of business rationalization, and the local imperative of customization, to reveal the emergence of a new model for global branding success; that of global/local co-creation. According to The Futures Company, Co-creation is the 5th generation model of global branding, and the successor to the most recent model of so-called ‘glocalization’.

“While the idea of customizing for local markets is nothing new, there is a new model arising about how to do that,” notes executive chairman, J. Walker Smith. “The old model of globalization was built on the idea of finding a local fit for a global idea, thus continuing to embody the notion of a center and a periphery. There is no more periphery. Every market is a centre now.

“What is happening now is that local markets are stepping up in prominence, influence and control of the meaning of brands. Co-creation recognizes this explicit collaboration on equal terms between brand owners and host markets. The very concept of a successful global brand now arises bottom-up across several locations at once. If not, the brand fails, period. “In this time of unprecedented uncertainty in the global marketplace, the iterative collaboration of co-creation affords innovation opportunities among both emerging and established brands. But opportunities notwithstanding, iconic global brands must find legitimacy and resonance in new ways. Helping brands do so is what we do as a firm at The Futures Company”.

The whitepaper is part of the Future Perspectives series of white papers on the changing global marketplace. It will be available as a free download from The  Futures Company website from 4 April.