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The one unmoving, irrefutable fact in this ever-changing world is that people are people first. This paper is an abstract from a book entitled ‘Beyond Branding’. The chapter that this paper focuses on suggests in its thesis that successful brand management has always struck at the many often-subconscious drivers of Homo sapiens. It further suggests that there is huge gain for those companies that really begin to understand and use this in their business and marketing strategies. As the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of humans, anthropology is the source from which the next great companies will be drawing their inspiration.

Understanding and management of a company's ‘moments of truth’ is the heartland of future, added-value brand management. Maintaining a company's licence to operate, and delivering on today's real business imperative should be part of its strategy. The business imperative is customer loyalty, however it is defined, and absolutely everyone in an organisation has a role and responsibility to achieve it. Up to 75 per cent of a company's stock price is directly or indirectly influenced by its reputation and image and a new concept of Unique Organisation Value Proposition™ (UOVP) offers a tool that, along with a moment-of-truth management process, can provide real customer added-value and corporate differentiation.

This paper examines some of the marketing practices which have been observed by the author during a long career in the IT industry, and asks if they are indicative of a general malaise across all business-to-business areas. Marketing is a skilled discipline requiring training and education which is eagerly sought after by fmcg companies, and then honed in-company with a perceived high value contribution to the business through successful management of a brand or brands. Does marketing have any credence or value in the IT industry in particular, and is it therefore surprising to find so little real understanding or application of brand management?