Equity for Punks
While the supermarket shelves are bulging with new product lines brand loyalty is shrinking faster than an MP’s expense account.
The markets have moved beyond mature to overcapacity. Choice might still be king but increasingly it's confusion that rules.
Unless of course your offering equity for punks.
Stuff that Sticks
A few years ago I was involved in some research for a shoe manufacturer. The brand had a reputation for being sensible, hard wearing and comfortable.
They wanted to launch a new range of shoes; ones their customers would buy because they were stylish and sexy. Like most companies they wanted a slice of a market that until now had eluded them.
The company had the designers, the technology, the financial muscle and the distribution network to achieve their ambition – they were global players. What soon became apparent was that their values reflect their Nordic sensibilities. These values were collective not individualistic, solid rather than overtly sexy and erred on sensible. In other words what they didn’t have were stylish, sexy values.
In order for that company to produce shoes that were inherently sexy and stylish they’d have to step away from their existing cultural values and adopt a culture and a set of values that was inherently alien to them. That wasn’t going to happen.
Over the last six or eight years I’ve seen and in some cases been involved with research initiatives in which global brands have invested significant amounts of money and time to break into markets which are alien to the brands’ core values.
The pickings look rich – irresistibly so and besides if you don’t do it someone else will. In the rush to stay on top and take advantage of the next biggest thing brand values are often ignored or worse reinvented.
It’s as if Harley Davidson had decided to get into the moped market. Sounds outrageous but what about Porches foray in the 4×4 market? Or Hummer moving into the luxury car market? Whilst it is possible to mine those profits in the short term the damage done to the brand in the long term is likely to outweigh any opportunistic short term gains. Growing a business at the expense of the brand can be costly in the long run.
Successful brand stretch is not so much linked to the product – we do toothpaste therefore we can do toothbrushes, mouthwash, chewing gum – but to the core values that define the brand territory. Stepping away from those core values confuses customers, muddies the brand message and ultimately damages the brand premium.
Brands that have been successful in moving from one territory to another have always remained true to their core values. Lucozade’s move from being a drink you gave to kids who were feeling under the weather to one consumed by athletes was in keeping with its core values around health. Marks and Spencer where able to reinvigorate the brand by going back to its core values of innovation married to value and quality.
Those brands that ignore their own brand heritage and the values that go with that heritage invariably end up looking like the proverbial ugly sister.
