Sustainability means one of two things when talking about brand thinking.
1) SUSTAINABILITY as environmentalism. When people talk about brands that are “green,” they are talking about sustainable brands. Brands that can sustain themselves and help the environment. This is something that has gained a lot of importance in the past couple of years with the growth of the movement of environmentalism. I think that this is something that is important. However, I’m curious about whether or not this is a fad. I believe that we will eventually have less and less importance attributed to it, though this may come because it will become the norm.
2) SUSTAINABILITY as brand longevity. More recently, people have started to talk about sustainable brands as brands that will last throughout the changes. These brands are important because they are culture conscience and ever changing. These brands are like people. They have their base personalities, but can adapt and change to the situation and circumstances that come up. However, these brands need to have their personalities solidified before they can begin to adapt to situations otherwise they risk not being identifiable.
Just a heads up. When I talk about sustainability, I think about definition 2.