“Legacy brands can buy identity (for example, Unilever, which snatched up subscription-based personal grooming company Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion); they can invest in identity (e.g., General Motors, which poured $500 million into ride-sharing startup Lyft to better understand and serve a new generation of drivers and passengers); or they can build their own identity asset on the years and years of customer data they've already accumulated. Whichever path brands pursue, maintaining the status quo is not an option if they want to stick around past the year ahead.”