Branding and the importance of it in a digital world

A very interesting article was written in The New Yorker this week on Lexicon, a company that focuses on creating brand names for clients. The Blackberry was solely created by ideation sessions, and resulted in huge brand equity, at one time being synonymous with smartphones prior to the iPhone revolution. The article provides interesting anecdotes and argues whether names are more or less important in the modern world (our very own Columbia professor Bernd Schmitt is quoted commenting the higher importance of the product itself versus the brand name). However one feels about the importance of brand names, its an interesting article for all of us marketers-noting the importance of multilingual exploration due to our globalized digital world, plus reminding all of us that the ever-increasing overload of product communication to customers necessitates a new way of thinking. Enjoy!
(oh and if you don't want to deal with paying to read the whole thing, I'm happy to send out the article for anyone who wishes to read it in full)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_colapinto