The brand as a year.

We're used to thinking about the brand as a product, a company, or even a person. Something with some sort of image attached – whether you like it, detest it, would like to be friends with it, or simply don't care. Perhaps we've heard companies talking about brand equity, and we've definitely seen tons of adverts trying to change our attitudes towards a specific product or a whole company.

But even years can be seen from the brand perspective. Have a taste at these words: The brand as a year. 2008 is lying mostly untouched ahead of us, and it's time to think about what we want it to be like. For politicians it's about the nation, the region, or the city. For you, the individual, it's about matters closer to home. Is it finally time you stop smoking? Or buy that house despite the rumble on the property market in the big country out west? Or perhaps make the biggest decision of your life and move to another country?

There is no telling what our perception of 2008 will be, in retrospect. Just think about 1968 – what does that year bring to mind? Or 2001? We all have personal perceptions about certain dates in time, but from a bigger perspective, don't we all share some common perceptions?

2007 has ended and initially I thought of nominating all the brands of the year – such as the person of the year, the decision of the year, or perhaps even the nation of the year (and I may still, later). But instead I want to pose the following question: which will be the prevailing image of the year 2007? For me, 2007 was the year when I returned to Göteborg, Sweden, from Cape Town, South Africa. As well as the year I started my brand & design consultancy company.

But which will be the unified image of 2007? The image most people will share? Perhaps the year when the world finally awoke to find the environmental nightmare to be true? Or the year when Benazir Bhutto was assasinated? The year when Carl von Linné would have turned 300 (he was born on 23 May 1707)? If we ask Wikipedia, 2007 is the year of Rumi, and the dolphin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007). And what will 2007 be remembered as in 100 years?

Happy New Year!