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Ladybank Whisky - new forms of brand creation (56.23800790659792 , -3.1427764892578125) Dissatisfied with the brand offerings from corporations, consumers are coming together to create their own brands and products. These consumers are looking for something different; it can be a radical new product, a personalized limited edition item and/or to be more engaged in the process of production.

"Know How" used to be exclusive; only corporations had it and they rarely gave it away. There were things called 'trade secrets" and "corporate espionage', now information is out and available and if you want to make something it's pretty easy to find out how you can do it yourself, or find someone who can do it for you.

One great example is Ladybank Whisky, a small distillery that's currently being built in Fife, Scotland.

Ladybank will only supply whisky to its 300 owners. The distillery will double up as a private members club where the owners can stay and check in on the progress of their whisky at the same time.

There's also Nudo, an olive farm farm in Italy, where you get to own your own olive tree and the oil from it.

Being directly connected to your product makes sense for luxury foods and beverages, but it could also work for other categories. Already, we are seeing small batch manufacturing in categories that would have seemed inconceivable 20 years ago, Tesla, the electric sports car is one example.

At present, this new business models aggregate consumers around a need by offering something different and unusual from a product delivery perspective, but also from the level and type of engagement offered.

It's likely that three models will new emerge to offer new types of brand creation.

New Aggregators

Like the three mentioned above. New companies with a new vision and new ideas will look to engage their consumers in quasi-ownership giving them greater access and more involvement in the process of product creation. However, a group of owners will remain firmly in charge.

Corporate Customization

The incumbents will open themselves up to allow consumers to dictate a more personalized product experience. Imagine P&G producing Tide to match the specific needs of your family wash and your local water supply.

Consumer Circumvention

Consumers may get together to create their own products to order. The closest we've gotten to date are the buying clubs that are now becoming popular in China. Here, consumers use the internet to aggregate themselves into a buying group to then go and negotiates a discounted rate from a seller. It's possible that another form could emerge where groups of consumers come together to get products produced on their behalf.