Are Branded (Luxury) Marketing Methods More Effective?

Seth Godin predicts the end of luxury brands as the digital age moves to content, agree?

In a post about marketing style, Seth Godin wrote a post on the effectiveness in the digital age. Essentially he notices how digital channels are making branding of luxury items different. Maybe even "worth less"!

The question is actually:

How are branded (luxury) marketing product's efforts more effective than (traditional) content marketing? 

The question is simple. It's been with us for hundreds years. Yet today we still see emphasis by business marketing using branding instead of content. Branding, or luxury marketing according to Godin has been the money machine of the last 50 years:

It's this selling of the logo, of Hermes or Chanel or Champagne that made the last fifty years of luxury production such an extraordinary opportunity.

 But... today the idea of brand name is being shoved aside by social networking and peer influence:

Here's what shifted just recently: In the post-industrial connection economy, we often value networks more than we value stuff. We'd rather have a working smart phone than a fancy car. We'd rather be invited to the right conferences than wear expensive shoes. Logos are worth less, easier to copy and not as valuable a tribal signifier as they were.

 What do you think? Is a brand name with a well recognized logo crucial for your specific business? Is the product you design, promote, or sell going to need branding? or are you going to need social networking to promote your product? At the end of the article, Godin backs off a little, saying: "I don't think the luxury industry will disappear, but without a doubt, it is changing. Charging more is one tactic, but it might not be the only one." He is certainly making a point we all need to keep in mind.