So, back to branding. In an age in which consumer has, through decades of advertising industry activity, developed a challengingly high level of commercial, visual and iconographic literacy, and in which, as a consequence, most prosaic product's message has to be devised with excruciating sophistication in order to be heeded, it's no surprise that our youngsters have been quietly dragged along in brainwashing wake. A two-year-old will not be insensible to message of ubiquitous and eloquent golden arches, even when they spy that icon from a fast-moving vehicle. The world-famous symbol, along with reportedly second-most-famous-face-in-the-world (after Santa Claus) speak volumes to youngest of our number, and message is McDonald's. Now more than ever, children of household dictate what products go into shopping cart every week and what treats might befall them between shopping trips.

Yep. We're dealing with an up-and-coming generation of icon readers blessed, or cursed, with a level of commercial literacy like we've never seen before. These kindergarteners will demand even more sophisticated commercial communications than we've been familiar with to date. Without their help we'll find difficulty in developing commercial communications to meet their expectations, harness their attention and retain their loyalty.

And here's thing. It's vital to remember underlying value of a powerful icon: it can engender outstanding loyalty. This loyalty, if taken good care of, can thrive for decades and become link between a product and its dramatically changing audience. Even though a band like Boyzone no longer exists, eBay, Yahoo! and other online auction sites still trade Boyzone merchandising. Strange? You only have to consider us grownups' relationships with ABBA, Beatles or Elvis Presley to realise obvious fact that loyalty those figures earnt from us during our tender years lives on in our senses of nostalgia, self-identity, force of habit … all corners of our memory and mentality that define our self-identities.

Let's not forget lessons our own personal experiences have taught us. And here's my best advice on how to learn from them: keep a close eyes on kids. Play with them, observe them, notice their tolerances, values and motivations. Get in tune with them. You might just discover secret behind, not only true icon development, but behind development of loyalty-creating icons.

I click on that banner ad to visit a hardware site and review information on their available drills, then I realize I won't have time for it to be delivered by tomorrow, which is weekend and I want to complete those deck repairs before Monday. I'll run down to hardware store for drill purchase. But I fill out contest entry for giant tool giveaway before I leave their web site.

I return to my online book seller following week to look up a book my wife is interested in about flower gardening and buy it for her. Based on my previous purchase of cookbook and combined with this purchase CRM software figures I enjoy cooking and gardening and serves up an ad on confirmation page for a Martha Stewart video on vegetable gardening. I'm not interested in that and jump over to Yahoo to look up latest sports scores and I'm served an advertisement for barbecue grills.

Perfect, I'll order that now and it will arrive by time we're ready to enjoy newly repaired deck for 4th of July. I click on ad banner and complete barbecue purchase. I'm looking for a way to make weekend perfect, so to I decide to order flowers delivered to my wife.

When I complete that purchase, I'm served an advertising banner for a newly released relationship book. I click on that banner and end up back at bookseller site. Their software sees a return customer that is interested in cooking, flower gardening and love. At same time Yahoo sees a customer interested in sports thrills, reversible drills and barbecue grills.

Now both of those parties, book seller and Yahoo, have a different picture of my surfing and buying habits.

The book seller is incorrect because I haven't bought a single book that interests me. Yahoo has me pegged, but guess what? The only value they have gained is increased ad revenue, which only benefits companies that generate huge traffic and create unwavering visitor loyalty. What if I switch my home page to iWon from Yahoo?

The return on investment is negligible unless site enjoys record-setting traffic levels and commands complete customer loyalty. Who's buying this software? It's bought by global corporations. Who's selling? Really smart cookies.