Life Cycle of a Brand
Your brand mark (or logo if you prefer) is the face of your brand, the thing people relate to, they either like your face or not. Yeh, ultimately it’s what’s inside what counts, and that is where ‘Brand Experience’ comes in. But, as we all know, a good first impression is vital, so your face needs to fit. As brands get older they pass through many stages of their life.
New Arrivals.
New brands have a baby face, cute, new, and refreshing. They are a novelty at first until the reality sets in. You take pleasure watching them learn to walk. But what will they look like, as they grow older. The choices you make now will affect them forever.
The Rebellious Teenager.
A teenage brand has a changing face; it moves with the times, it may change its looks with fashion as the decades pass. It thinks it’s a rock star. It has a snarl on its face, an attitude; it thinks it knows absolutely everything. But it still needs the steady hand of discipline or it will self destruct, and eventually leave the rails.
Mid-Life Crisis.
As your face gets older you start to panic, should I change. You don’t know whether to twist or stick, gamble or amble. Do you do something drastic and become a 30 something rebellious teenager? You could end up looking like your dad dancing at a disco. Or, do you learn to deal with the fact you are becoming a grandad.
The Weathered Look.
Some brands have a tired look; they may have let themselves go a bit. Or been out in the wilderness for some years. Usually this can be reversed without the need for plastic surgery. Usually just a good scrub, a good shave and a sharp haircut will do the trick.
The Grandad.
The more mature brand is like your grandad. It has a distinguished face that commands respect, but is also equally loved. It has slowly matured as it has survived life’s challenges. Older faces don’t need to be radically altered. If your grandad gets a haircut he is just a sharper version of your grandad, right?
He looks a bit fresher, maybe even younger. If he has a nose job, a facelift, or maybe even dyes his hair, people will laugh, and never look at him the same again. The damage is done and you undo all the years of building up your well respected reputation.
There are plenty of brands that are great successes and almighty failures in each of these stages. There are no good or bad stages here, just correct or incorrect brand positioning and execution.
To understand what stage your branding is in, give us a call!
Written by
Darren Scott
Founder / Creative Director – Truth