Au revoir, brands?

The current focus on data to measure marketing success could herald the end of an era - or the beginning of a hype cycle

Ignore the academic pride and posturing of the past. Forget the linguistic arguments… data rule[s] the day....Data science is...the new look of marketing”.
 
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I saw the affiliation of the author of this: Northwestern University. This was the university that was home to Professor Philip Kotler who conceptualised the idea of “brand marketing” and whose 1967 book, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control, is even today, 52 years later, a staple textbook in every business school in the world.
 
The sentence that I quoted was from the preface of the book, Marketing