"Just the other day, I went for a walk along Main Street, studying the branding of each retailer. Only a third had defined brands. The other two-thirds had no branding at all. Half of those didn't even look like retailers. From the sidewalk, you couldn't tell what they were selling. This was just this one stretch of road, and I realized you have to look at any demographic as a strip of road. A brand appeals to a target audience, local or otherwise. This is a basic but important reminder that the internet has only changed how we shop. Why we shop hasn't changed at all. Even though we don't dabble in retail, the same principles apply."