BRANDS NEED TO BE KEPT VIBRANT
BRANDS NEED TO BE KEPT VIBRANT
Thursday, 13 August 2009 13:56
The strength of a brand lies primarily in its ability to convince consumers that it plays an important role in their lives. Due to this brands have a natural lifespan that is governed by changes in consumers needs over time. Strong brands take time and effort to build and the work pays off by creating a strong bond of trust with consumers that leads to long term sustainable profitability.
However attaining strong brand status does not mean that the work is over; with time a brand will age and can eventually die off if it does not keep up with the transformation of consumer needs. It is therefore important to keep your brand current, relevant and topical. If you do not do so you run the risk of your brands strengths, reliability and familiarity fading into the background of consumers’ minds, like wall paper.
Great old brands can be fixtures in consumers’ lives but that does not mean that they are fixed in one place. They must simultaneously stay true to the core brand idea and change with the times. The challenge is to continuously modernize, especially when the competitive environment comprises of new younger brands. This continuous evolution does not erode the brand essence, but instead strengthens it by redefining it to consumers in their current terms of reference. Apple’s launch of iPod is a great example of a big brand keeping up with the times. Anyone who is an Apple Mac user will agree that the iPod is in sync with the Apple brand spirit of easy to use.
Competitive advantage via branding is a powerful long lasting force but it is not inexhaustible. Keeping up with the times enables a brand to maintain this invaluable competitive advantage over competitors, by continuously inspiring consumers with its “current-ness”.
Furthermore, for a company listed on the stock exchange an evolving brand translates to maintenance of high valuation in the capital markets. Companies with brands that are neglected find their valuation slowly slipping in time and their ability to attract investors diminishing. Making a brand topical and modern is a great strategy for jump starting a sluggish performer in the capital markets, as was seen with KCB.
For most categories there are very few unique positions that a brand can occupy and these positions once occupied effectively are very difficult to steal. However, a strong brand that does not stay current can loose its unique position to a new more vibrant competitor brand. Therefore staying relevant is in itself a strategy to protect your brand positioning. Nike has managed to protect its unique positioning for decades by staying relevant to consumer trends.
The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of Interbrand Sampson East Africa, a strategic brand consultancy firm.
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