What should I do if my brand becomes “old”?

We often lament that the world has changed too fast in the past 20 years.

If you are not careful, a global giant may fall (think of Nokia); those brands that were once written into textbooks will become outdated within 2-3 years if they do not seek innovation and change (Zara, MUJI, and Haidilao have all seen a sharp decline in popularity).

"Brand aging" has become a topic that many business owners understand but are unwilling to face.

In fact, even if the brand is aging, at least it is a brand, right ? Many companies haven’t even built up their brand awareness.

As consumers grow and product life cycles evolve, it is normal for brands to age.

Generally speaking, the path of brand development is: starting - rapid development - stable development - gradually declining.

When you reach the critical point shown in the figure below, you will have many choices: let it develop and gradually go down the downward slope of dying; or open up a "second curve" and start over?

However, the choice looks simple but is difficult to make.

The key to hesitation lies in “sunk costs”; if you want to start a new brand, what should you do with the brand assets you have accumulated before, and will you lose your current customers? Although the growth is slow now, there is still income. If things change, what if...

Therefore, many companies think that they can just make some changes. Since young people are the main consumers, they can change to a more fashionable logo, novel packaging, young idol spokespersons, and do live broadcasts on Douyin and Kuaishou...

But what about the effect? It is definitely not good; think about it, when it comes down to it, the successful stories of brand renewal are only the likes of China's Li Ning and Pechoin, which can be counted on ten fingers.

There are several problems here:

First: Brand aging is a sign of a company's weak innovation capabilities, backward business models, and outdated operations and management . If you want your brand to be evergreen, you must first start with strategy. If the direction is wrong, the harder you work and the faster you run, the further you will be from the finish line.

Second: Although young people are energetic, brands will naturally have new energy by capturing young consumer groups; however, young people today are really different from before, and it may not be possible to capture them even if you want to; they are naturally anti-authoritarian, do not like to be labeled, and have independent opinions; using traditional thinking patterns and past product forms to do business with young people may not necessarily work.

Third: Although young people are the main consumers, their ability to pay is not necessarily strong. Companies that follow the trend of young people may lose a larger market .

The following Accenture 2018 report "New Consumption New Power" is still of reference value today:

Although young people are the main force in social activity, the consumer groups are diverse; in many industries, the current backbone of consumption is still the middle-aged or even the elderly.

Therefore, in today's highly competitive world, grasping the needs of target customers and continuously innovating and improving may be the only way out (of course, we can't learn from old and powerful brands such as Lao Gan Ma and Moutai).

Today we’ll talk briefly about how to revitalize your brand. This is a broad topic, and is related to every aspect of business operations, and the situation of each company is different. Just propose a few directions and open up new ideas.

01 Retention and new customer acquisition strategies

From the customer's perspective, brand aging means that existing customers have grown up and want to leave. How can we retain them? There are no new customers yet, how to attract them?

1. Retention, continue to serve existing customers and reduce churn

One approach may be to try to increase customer stickiness with the brand through a membership system, where loyal members will become more valuable over time.

Of course, this cannot be achieved by simply asking customers to buy a lifetime platinum card. It relies on high-quality products and warm service. IKEA from Sweden is an example. Users of all ages are loyal users of IKEA.

IKEA started printing the Home Catalogue in 1951 and used it to establish communication and connections with subscribers (the initial prototype of membership); today, at the age of 70, IKEA is still on the road of innovation.

2. Attract new customers

The best example is the Happy Fat House Water - Coca-Cola. I mentioned it in my previous article "The Secret of Coca-Cola's Youth":

“Coca-Cola is not only talking to existing users, but also focusing on updating its user base. By having in-depth conversations with the new generation, adding more topical content, more interesting activities, and cooler designs… the brand remains vibrant.”

02 Multi-brand strategy

In corporate brand planning, I often recommend companies with sufficient funds and strength to try a multi-brand strategy.

Separate the product brand from the company brand, and let the new brand try new products, face new markets, and use new operating models.

When it comes to multiple brands, Procter & Gamble is the first to be praised; its shampoos include Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Vidal Sassoon, etc. There are different products to meet the various needs of different segments of the population.

Although a lot of business has been snatched away by many small and beautiful brands in recent years, and Head & Shoulders and Pantene have become increasingly unpopular, brands such as SKII and Oral-B have always been quite vibrant.

The advantage of multiple brands is that they spread the risk. Even if an attempt is unsuccessful, it will not have much impact on the company's brand. At worst, you can try again.

Also, if the original brand was very strong before and was once the memory of many people, then creating a new brand may be able to awaken dormant customers, which is worth a try.

For example, the memories of our generation, such as Pizza Hut and Haagen-Dazs, are aging; I think it is time to try multiple brands, because when this generation gets old, new brands will no longer have the accumulation of previous ones.

Xiaomi's Redmi brand is an example of a brand that has rebounded from the bottom of the market through precise multi-brand positioning. Tai Er Pickled Fish, incubated by Jiu Mao Jiu Catering, is also a successful case.

If the original brand has reached the end of the decline curve, then it should be more determined to take a drastic measure and give it a try; for example, the success of the vivo brand, which later became the BBK smartphone brand, is a model.

The disadvantage of a multi-brand strategy is that it is very risky. It is equivalent to reopening a company . What if it fails?

In addition, the increased operational difficulty and high costs brought by the new team, as well as the integration with the original team must all be considered. These are the main reasons why many companies have not dared to try.

03 Develop new markets and new customers

If a multi-brand strategy is not suitable, you can try to find new markets and develop new customers.

Business expansion not only buys time for innovation, but also brings vitality and even adds value to the brand.

In Guangzhou, my city, there is a very old restaurant - Tao Tao Ju (with a history of more than 100 years). Before 2015, it was about to go bankrupt, but now it has become the most popular restaurant in Guangzhou with the longest queue (no matter when you go, the average waiting number is about 100).

Of course, the operators and the affiliated companies changed in the meantime; but judging from the results, the brand that was already in its twilight years has come back to life.

New Tao Tao Ju broke away from the tradition of opening stores in the old city and opened a store in the most popular mall in the downtown area. The target customers have expanded from neighbors to young people and tourists from other places. The decoration is fashionable and youthful, but it also retains the traditional elements of the old brand. The dishes also retain the classic Cantonese cuisine and add various milk teas and caramel puddings that young people like...

Even century-old brands can regain vitality in new markets as long as they keep changing and tapping into new consumer groups, not to mention other relatively young brands.

There are also many successful examples of mature brands gaining new opportunities by expanding into lower-tier markets or exploring overseas markets.

For example, giants such as McDonald's and KFC, as well as the aforementioned Procter & Gamble brands, have long targeted the huge third- and fifth-tier cities in China and have been very active.

Domestic brands that have returned from overseas, such as Feiyue and Bosideng, have transformed themselves into trendy brands.

04 Turning around through innovative products

In his first year back at Apple, Jobs launched the "Think Different" campaign and the iMac, a brightly colored, translucent home computer that became the key to Apple's comeback.

Instead of a beige square of a computer and display, a tangle of wires and a thick installation manual, the iMac is a friendly, thin device that feels smooth in the hand and is pleasing to the eye.

The evaluation at that time was as follows:

"This is not only the coolest-looking computer launched in recent years, but also a powerful declaration that Silicon Valley's original dream company is finally no longer sleepwalking," "iMac is a gorgeous turnaround for the industry," "Jobs is using the same strategy as 15 years ago - creating popular products and launching an extremely powerful marketing offensive, a strategy that once made Apple a great success at the time."

The iMac marked the beginning of a new era for Apple and fulfilled its promise to "think different."

A product (now called a hot product) can indeed bring new life to a brand. Of course, sticking to a product is not an easy task, and focus and persistence are indispensable.

Apple's products have never said that their target customers are young people, but the connotations of "cool", "beyond imagination" and "sense of technology" have always attracted consumers of different ages around the world, and the brand has always been full of vitality.

05 Brand image upgrade

If the product itself is good, but the brand image is a bit outdated and the packaging is a bit old, you can give it new meaning through renewal.

The best example is the brand upgrade of the 600-year-old Forbidden City, which has now become a new "Internet celebrity" and super IP.

Not only cultural and creative products, but when you open the Palace Museum's website, you will be greeted by the ultimate fusion of tradition and innovation (think about the websites of many of our companies, which are really too unrefined).

The Forbidden City has now become the most trendy cultural and creative image in the minds of young people. Is the brand young? certainly.

I have talked about this topic: "If a brand has been silent in the market for a long time, it is necessary to reawaken the recognition of consumers/users; or if a brand is in a recession cycle and needs to seek a second curve of growth, it is also a good time to upgrade the brand."

However, before upgrading the brand image, you must have a strategy first, develop a product plan and communicate with consumers, partners and employees. This will increase the likelihood of a successful brand upgrade.

06 Innovation in Marketing Methods

A few years ago, the success of Adidas' retro Stansmith white shoes was due to the spread of word-of-mouth by KOLs and COLs and the legendary hunger marketing.

The reason why many brands fall behind is that consumers and marketing channels have changed, but companies are still using the same methods to promote their products (although the picture below is from 2008, it is still applicable today).

The evolution of marketing methods that everyone can feel is: personal promotion - TV advertising - brand IP - KOL endorsement - word of mouth and self-propagation...

Companies that don’t embrace social media and maximize customer experience now will inevitably lose opportunities.

07 Organizational Innovation

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, for a brand to become dynamic, the organization must also adapt .

Although many people aged 40-50 occasionally use Tik Tok and become the new wave of Bilibili... it is basically impossible for a middle-aged person to fully understand and accept the young people's way of thinking.

Especially for those middle-aged people who are inherently averse to the two-dimensional world, barrage, drinking milk tea, playing games, etc., don’t even think about going to the front of the stage to guide product design and brand communication. Let young people talk to young people!

Of course, if the execution and creativity of young people can be brought into play and the strategic thinking and overall control of experienced managers can be combined, such a combination will have the strongest combat effectiveness.

Some managers think they understand young people, but they resist change in their hearts and return to traditional ways of thinking when making decisions. They use the original processes and models, only give the brand a new look, and then think about coping with the changed market.

Such an attempt is a losing gamble.

Brand innovation requires in-depth insights into target customers, continuous product refinement, embracing changes in marketing methods, and using new organizations to respond to new markets...

I hope the above is inspiring.

Author: Hanni

Source: Time Notebook