It’s a tough decision when it comes to developing your brand – do you opt for a subtle evolution, or do you make a huge positional change and revolutionise your brand to keep up with modern day trends?
There are pro’s and con’s of each. The important thing is to listen to your audience and develop your brand in a way that either suits them, or attracts a whole new, bigger, better audience.
Evolution
Some of the biggest brands that have been established for some time evolve as opposed to doing anything hugely revolutionary. The likes of Coca Cola, who have kept their traditional values, and even their iconic identity, since they first began, have proven the success of evolving the brand to adapt to the needs of the audience. Yes, Coca Cola have developed and rebranded over the years, but taking a look at Coca Cola when they first set out, and comparing to where they are now, the values and identity are very much the same.
Tetley is another great example. In May 2012 there was news of Tetley dropping their beloved tea men characters – A recent ad shows the men in action. Perhaps the brand is in the middle of revolutionising, but currently this is a great example of how the brand has evolved, updating animation and tweaking the brand to modernise. The values are still very traditional.
Hovis is a brand that has evolved, tweaking their brand, and even reverting back to the original, vintage ads that were once successful. These ads have the opportunity to be successful once again due to the brand staying extremely traditional and making this transition across decades effortless.
Revolution
We all remember Scoda when it was positioned as a cheap brand of car. In the last few years the brand has completely turned around to position themselves as a quality reliable brand- this is a brand that has taken revolution by the horns – bearing in mind it needed to do so to survive in a harsh market.
Aldi is another example of a brand positioned purely as cheap, to a brand that now competes with the likes of Sainsburys and Asda – it has brought itself into a higher level of competition through investing in advertising and revolutionising their brand.
One final example is Guinness- a brand that use to be associated with the old traditional male, whereas now, through sponsoring rugby, it keeps its traditional values of quality but now targets a much younger audience.
There is no right or wrong in developing your brand in an evolutionary or revolutionary way. If your values are strong and your brand is established, a drastic change in positioning can ruin your brand. However, if you do not ‘refurbish’ your brand you can become lost in old ways, and lose the audience you worked so hard to get in the first place.
Certainly something to think about!
Emma Dobson is a branding expert and Touch Point guru at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
