Is anything permanent?

This is a very philosophical question "Is anything permanent?" and I believe there are some things that can be. I was thinking about this recently during an engagement, a typical brand strategy project and why a brand deserves to exist and thrive. In a cluttered world why should a product that does roughly the same thing as many others even survive?

I started with first principle...
- What do products need to survive? Customers.
- What attracts customers? Brands.
- Why brands? Brands give people a reason beyond a product
- What kind of a reason? A unique thought, a special place in the mind, an unequivocal emotion!

So in essence as long as emotions exist products survive. Said differently things can be permanent as long as the unique emotion is tied and implicitly associated with the brand the products will last.

A classic example are empires like India, China, Rome, Egypt, etc. came and went but religions and philosophies like Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc. have out lasted generations. Abstract concepts outlive time and space!