Brand and the reciprocity principle
A new Boston Consulting Group study analyzes how the Millennial generation has a distinctive relationship with brands, referred to in the study as "the reciprocity principle." The study asserts that brand is increasingly created by the consumer (at least the more activist ones), and not solely or even dominantly by the marketing communications professional.
The brand isn't what we want it to be (or what our boss wants it to be); the brand is what the consumer tells us it is.