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When tone of voice is consistent it allows the consumer another means of recognizing the brand and being reassured of expectations.

"Language is available to each of us," argues John Simmons, brand language evangelist and writer of several books on the subject. "Design is seen as a specialist life skill you have to acquire. Poor old language gets devalued because everyone does that, don't they?"

If a company's staff doesn't speak, write or behave in line with what the customer has been led to expect, then he will feel let down.

Almost all these "classic" brands fell out of favor many years ago, often being reduced to a single retail outlet. Yet in a country like China, where heritage, authenticity, and many things European are highly desirable, their obscurity didn’t matter. The simple fact that they were all founded in Europe in another historical time was enough for the brand-obsessed citizens to dig deep into their wallets, and spend big.

I asked a Chinese client who manufactures one of the largest clothing lines in the country when he thought it would be a good time for the company to adopt an international name. After all, very few people outside of China would be able to read, let alone pronounce the name. He looked at me, and with all seriousness replied, "It’s time for the Westerners to learn some Chinese." His is not an isolated attitude; rather it’s a widely held sentiment amongst Chinese senior management

In the same way that China has spent decades selling cheap non-branded labour to the world, when they decide to focus on creating strong international brands, it will undoubtedly be done the Chinese way. When it happens, it will be happening on their terms, regardless of whether you want it or not. 

The films are a great example of how advertising has evolved for the age of perpetual beta. Had Ikea played the ads straight -- had they run nothing but porny shots of whisks and wooden spoons -- the whole campaign would've died as soon as it hit the intertubes; no one wants to look at that stuff (and the beauty of the Internet is that no one has to). But by blurring the line between advertising and content, Ikea creates incentive for people to click and, the thinking goes, to buy more stuff.