Surowiecki on the death of the brand. Funnily enough, I was thinking about this after I got woken by a call in the early, early morning. What will replace brands? I think something akin to repositories for consumers' emotions about businesses, products, services, etc. Now, I know I'll take heat from marketing guys who say this is what brands are - I disagree - I think brands operate at a less fundamental psychological level; the level of associative learning.
'LoveMarks' is on the right track, but it's obviously biased to one end of the emotional spectrum. A better term might be emotioneering (although that's pretty bad as well).