As people hunker down, lose their jobs, see iconic corporations change dramatically, and face a new reality of a more fundamental lifestyle, we’re going to see a shift of importance in creating value. Value in 2007 was about trading up the ladder by adding features that offered more for slightly less more money.

If you’ve got a brand that’s about creating something of value, then you better focus on it. If you’ve got a brand that has lived on being a lifestyle, then you better find a meaning or plan on being smaller for quite a while. Brands that were making money by being slightly better for slightly less, be aware of the old strategic phrase: getting stuck in the middle.

Brands and companies in the middle will shrink in 2009 and companies that aren’t able to shift down, or hone a premium message, shrink and stay on the top (of mind) will not fair well.

As backdrop, Christopher Locke saw this trend coming back in 2001 in Gonzo Marketing when he noted that Ford was being very progressive in 2000 by trying to get all employees to push forward their passions into online forums. As an example, if people who work for Ford also like to garden, then foster online communities amongst employees offer the possibility to open up to the outside world to interact about all sorts of things that could even include new ideas for Ford’s trucks, but also a lot of other good ideas and meaningful involvement.

This week, Gary V. nails it on his “120″ video covering how all these new social web tools are forcing folks to align all elements of their lives onto the same page. No more secret lives, fake or ambiguous ID’s since Facebook is playing the hand of people to fess up to the networks they belong to for access. Along with that forcing hand comes transparency.

Next up, Loic Le Meur offers solid thoughts on his frustrations of the decentralizations of the social map. Partly, web communications are just becoming more advanced to meet users’ needs, but also he’s noting a problem with the early stages of web’s social tools.

Facebook is a walled garden which offers people a safe and user-controlled environment. While Flickr and MySpace broke a lot of social norms about a person’s online persona, Facebook’s attraction as a safer version of digital media sharing allows for a transitional platform for those still afraid to fully go online. For these ‘early majority’, the idea that digital media may get online with little to no control personal control is still scary. An explosion in video and digital camera technology combined to most cell phones (plus much easier uploading functions) should all but end that fear in the coming years (for many in the early and late majority of tech adoption, not for laggards).

How does this thread together for branding? The two emerging concepts of transparency (=people being who they are at work and at home) plus disintermediation (=tools that foster connectivity without being a platform) create a person as marketer/representative/communicator. [note: yes, I'm pulling a term, disintermediation, that isn't really used for the web, but I think it fits]

Marketing strategy and communication is becoming more like silly putty. While these branding concepts are not novel in for web developers and marketers, it is very challenging for firms outside of the interconnected web that are used to highly structured interactions. Silly putty can even make a copy of the news/comics that can be stretched.

If you don’t believe me, read how kids are freaking out that they can’t be alone on the internet because their parents are joining their ranks on Facebook and via IM. This is early adoption turning slowly main stream.

Facebook, Linkedin and cell phone based IM are forcing personal connections as opposed to blogging, twittering and related responses which still see a good share of faux-profiles. Being the same person all the time merges a person’s many facets onto the same canvas. For the older of us, that’s not what we grew up with and while some will hang on to the idea of having a Second Life, gadget convergence is bringing the digital world closer to the real one.

Whew, a position piece video (the player auto-loads, hence the jump)…

Is Facebook the Trojan horse this video implies? Maybe the answer of “what happens in Facebook, stays in Facebook” isn’t so much to ask for.