Category Archives: Brand Promise

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception

Starbucks from Coffee to Wine to Food to Focus ?

Starbucks is the miracle story of a US-based company becoming the expert globally in selling quality coffee. The company gave us the concept of an extra living room, or as Starbucks says,’ the third place between work and home.’ The coffee is not cheap, but the perception (supported by the price) is that you get a quality cup. The company has tried several times to break out of the Coffee category but time after time realises that Focus on the Core remains the best strategy.

Back in 1971, the company was all about Coffee, Tea, and Spices. In 1987 the founders sold the company to Howard Schultz. Under Schultz, the company focused on coffee. It created a new logo, and gone were the Tea and Spices. The new logo linked the brand and category. Starbucks = Coffee. As a result, the company went through massive growth. Between 2005 and 2011, revenues increased from 494M to 1,246M, a staggering 152%.

By the end of 2010, the company was ready for more growth. The company took the thinking of a ‘third place between work and home’ to a new level. Their customer-led research revealed that ‘Starbucks customers are also wine enthusiasts’ and ‘Starbucks customers love beer too’. There was a demand for a casual meeting environment in the evening hours. Starbucks was going to fulfill that role and serve the customers what they enjoy: wine and craft beer. Starbucks became so much more than coffee alone. The logo was updated to reflect that. ‘Starbucks Coffee’ was removed.

The Starbucks website introduced the Evenings program :

‘Starbucks customers are already enjoying coffee at our stores in the evening, and now, they have more menu options including wine, craft beer, and small plates.’

‘Rachel Antalek, Starbucks in-house sommelier, led the Evenings team as they explored the world of wine, looking for the most interesting assortment that’s not only delicious, but a great value as well. The team evaluated different varietals of wine to offer the complex and unique flavors that customers expect from Starbucks.’

The menu consisted of ‘Savory small plates’ and ‘Perfectly paired wines’. Some tasty examples from the menu :

Truffle Mac & Cheese
Chicken Sausage & Mushroom Flatbread
Meatballs with Tomato Basil Sauce
Truffle Popcorn
Wines – Sparkling, White, Sparkling Rosé and Red
Craft Beer

The program grew eventually to 400 stores in the U.S. and locations outside the U.S. The 2015 annual stakeholders meeting listed the Evening Program as one of the seven strategies for growth :

‘By the end of 2019, we will double food sales in the Americas through breakfast, lunch, snacks and the Evenings program. We will grow our food business in the U.S. from 18% to 25% of revenues by the end of 2019 adding an additional $2 Billion to our base business.’

In 2016 Starbucks stopped the program. It failed. The official reason was a ‘counter service format’ issue:

‘It appears that this strategy did not work, especially since table service in the evenings conflicted with the counter service format in the mornings.’

Of course the Evenings program did not fail because of the counter service format. The Starbucks company forgot that the position of the brand in the minds of people is just Coffee. It was never about Evening food, wines, and craft beer. Just imagine people saying, ‘Let’s get a glass of wine at Starbuck’. Starbucks is not going to replace wine establishments or bars.

Once companies have put their minds to something, they do not give up. So Starbucks decided to take all the learnings from the Evening Program to create high-end Roastery stores. In 2019 Starbucks introduced six Reserve Roasteries around the world, in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Shanghai, Milan, and Tokyo. The Starbucks Reserve Roasteries serve ‘unique food and beverage experiences’. Once again everything is directly connected with Starbucks the coffee brand.

Starbucks keeps trying because food is a huge growth area. The mistake the company makes is to enter the food category with a coffee brand. Starbucks could have done a couple of things. First, it could have reinforced its leadership position in coffee by bringing the unique Reserve and Barrel-Aged Coffee from the Roasteries to some of its locations. Additionally, Starbucks should have expanded outside the box with the Conquer Strategy. Launch a new brand to grow in the evening food and drinks category. The new brand should operate in new locations, closer to where the bars and restaurants are.


This article is from the book Win With What – the first category-led growth book for anyone who wants their business to thrive and survive.

Get your preview at WinWithWhat.com

 

Brand partnerships, Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Portfolio

Bugatti and TIDAL Audio – the brand partnership done right

Bugatti’s expansion beyond automobiles requires preserving its core values. Successful partnerships, like the one with TIDAL Audio, set new benchmarks in luxury and performance, offering customers unprecedented quality and exclusivity.

 

Founded in 1909 by the renowned Italian-born French automobile designer Ettore Bugatti, the Bugatti brand has a famous history of crafting the world’s most exclusive and sought-after performance automobiles.

Over a century later, Bugatti is embarking on an exciting journey to expand beyond automobiles and venture into new product categories, including residences, watches, and audio. Diversifying a brand into new territories is never easy. Typically, brand owners may assume that the reputation they’ve built in one domain will naturally translate into success in others. However, this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every product category has its own established leaders, benchmark products, and unique customer bases. To make a mark in multiple categories, a brand’s core essence must be deeply understood by a broad range of consumers. Apple serves as a prime example, where innovation and style of their products consistently redefine categories, from the original iPod in music players to the iPhone as first touch smartphone and now into spatial computing with VisionPro.

 

Preserving Bugatti’s core essence in brand expansion

The Bugatti brand is synonymous with its core values of unparalleled luxury, performance, and exclusivity. These are not just principles but are deeply embedded in each Bugatti automobile. When venturing into new categories, this same core essence must be seamlessly carried forward. Any deviation risks compromising the brand’s image, as customers of incomparable products or experiences expect nothing less of everything carrying the brand name. Growing the Bugatti brand equity will be the result of reinforcing the brand’s core in behavior, communication, and products. This disciplined approach will also help determine which categories are suitable for Bugatti’s expansion. It becomes evident why products like water bottles, eyewear, or clothing that could possibly marked as merchandising accessories should be excluded from consideration, while timeless products and experiences in domains such as residences and audio can naturally align with Bugatti’s essence.

Expanding Bugatti into a new category and maintaining alignment with the brand-core from the outset is a major challenge. Crafting luxury and performance objects of this level usually takes decades of perfection. Therefore, extending the Bugatti brand beyond automobiles calls for strategic partners upholding the same rigorous standards and values in everything the partner does, as anything less could adversely affect the image of Bugatti and that of the partner.

The mindset of delivering the incomparable brand experience must be embodied in everyone working at Bugatti and its partners. Just adding the Bugatti logo on a product and charging more does not authentically make it a Bugatti product. In fact, the strategy of “logo plastering” is likely to have a negatively impact the reputation of the brands involved. The long-term effects of off-brand experiences don’t outweigh the short-term speed in go to market and financial gains.

An illustrative example is a recent case where a(nother famous audio) manufacturer thought to justify a 65% price hike by simply adding red paint and a little black horse to an existing product, without delivering any real benefit for the buyer. Speaking of pricing, the brand Bugatti would never associate itself with “our offers” and “best prices”- that is why you will not find this on e.g. their automobile pages. Bugatti should therefore insist that its partners never feature “offers” and “best prices” on pages associated with the Bugatti brand. The value of incomparable cannot be summed up with a simple price tag.

 

Entering the world of audio with TIDAL for Bugatti

The collaboration with TIDAL Audio is an exemplary illustration of how to execute a brand partnership successfully. TIDAL Audio is renowned for its loudspeakers and electronics, recognized as “the best-looking, best-built, best-sounding” in the industry. Founded in 1999 by Jörn Janczak, the company was driven by the unwavering ambition to redefine sound quality. The essence of Bugatti, as articulated by Ettore Bugatti himself – “if comparable, it is no longer Bugatti” – mirrors the core philosophy of TIDAL Audio. Both brands share a dedication to setting benchmarks in luxury and performance, and they succeeded in achieving this ambitious goal.

The “TIDAL for Bugatti” range has elevated audio performance and luxury to unprecedented heights. The ROYALE loudspeakers embody the spirit and idea of offering second to none technologies, execution and performance not done before and according to the experts in the audio industry setting the new benchmark.

This brand partnership is truly the blueprint for successful collaborations. And when a partnership is done right the benefits are mutual. Bugatti makes its mark in the world of ultra-high-end audio, redefining the category according to industry press and reviews, while TIDAL Audio enters the world of ultra-luxury lifestyle.

Ultimately, customers seeking incomparable luxury, performance, and exclusivity emerge as the ultimate winners in this extraordinary collaboration, reaffirming both brands’ commitment to being truly unmatched.

 

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy

Categories come and go… and with AI faster and more impactful than before

Like everything else, nothing remains the same forever. New categories are born, evolve, and eventually fade away. Every change in a category has an impact on the brands within it. In today’s AI-driven world, category changes are happening at a rapid pace. Are you prepared for a brand repositioning?

When categories split, the mindshare is distributed among subcategories. For instance, when the family car category split into hatchbacks, sedans, family SUVs, and family 4×4, the mindshare of brands spread across these new subcategories. Some subcategories may only appeal to car enthusiasts.

At times, categories become irrelevant. The phone category transitioned from analog cabled phones to mobile phones and finally to today’s smartphones. In each step, we witnessed a new leader emerge. Motorola, renowned for its analog cordless phones, introduced the StarTAC clamshell mobile phone in 1996. The StarTAC achieved massive success in the USA and featured in numerous Hollywood movies. However, it was Nokia that became globally synonymous with mobile phones. Nokia evolved the category by incorporating computer-like functions such as an address book, calendar, notes, and simple games.

New categories, new leaders

Nokia was the first to launch smartphones, although they still had keys and resembled traditional mobile phones. In 2007, Apple revolutionized the category with the launch of the iPhone, featuring a touch interface that marked a clear break from the mobile phone category. The iPhone kickstarted the modern smartphone category we know today, causing Nokia’s global dominance to fade away. Presently, the smartphone category hosts numerous brands like Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Nokia, but it remains primarily dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Evolution of the phone category

 

In the phone category, the leading brand was able to evolve into the next category but never retained its leadership position. This pattern is not unique to phones but applies to nearly any evolving category.

AI accelerates category changes

Today, any category that can be AI-powered will undergo transformation. The keyword to watch out for is Smart: smart cars, smart watches, smart photo editing, smart ordering systems, and more.

When the leap from the current product or services to the smart counterparts is perceived as significant, it opens the door for a complete category shakeup, often accompanied by the emergence of new brands. We have witnessed this in the phone industry (Nokia to Apple) and the automotive industry, where underlying technological changes have been emphasized (leading to Tesla/Polestar). Similar “smart” shakeups will occur in many categories we currently take for granted, ranging from healthcare devices to photo editing software and customer support solutions.

For brands to survive within categories heavily affected by AI (which includes almost every category!), it is crucial to manage the category and brand association effectively and navigate the perceptual change of the brand in relation to the category’s evolution.

In my book Win With What I provide numerous methods and tools to help brands stay on the growth path or regain their position in a changing landscape.


This article is from the book Win With What – the first category-led growth book for anyone who wants their business to thrive and survive.

Get your preview at WinWithWhat.com

 

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception, Portfolio, Positioning

The End of Facebook

Meta is running the last leg of its once so-popular social media platform Facebook: Facebook is on its way out.

In 2013 the Facebook CFO already warned of upcoming problems in the Q3 2013 earnings call “We did see a decrease in daily users partly among younger teens. … This is of questionable significance.”

In 2015 I concluded that Facebook, the brand leader of the extensive category social network, will eventually face issues with focused brands taking small bites out of the big pie and capturing users from the leader (link).

The combination of brand decline with the youth (= looking for another brand than Facebook) and new brands coming in (Snapchat, Insta, TikTok, and many more) eventually will lead to the end of Facebook. Facebook is not attracting the youth and grows along with the old.

In 2018 while teaching second-year students, I learned that the Facebook issues were more significant than I had thought: a few of the100 students used Facebook very specifically to browse posts. They did not post anything themselves.

Recently I decided to recheck the Facebook status with a large group of students. The trend has only gotten worse: Facebook is hardly in use with the group <25 years – not even to browse posts.

The generalist category “social network” is disappearing; with it, the brand Facebook will eventually disappear.

The company’s rebranding from Facebook to Meta was a vital move. Under Meta, each product brand can flourish without a link to the fading Facebook brand.  

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception, Portfolio

Birkenstock – from “sandals and shoes” to “sleep systems” (Part II)

Birkenstock makes moves outside the perceptual category of “comfortable and stylish quality sandals and shoes”  

I discussed the Birkenstock Natural Skin Care line extension in the previous post. After sharing it on LinkedIn, I learned from Ruben Lekkerkerker that Birkenstock had already extended into sleep systems.  

To recap: Birkenstock is known for its quality sandals and shoes, and Google confirms its strong positioning. Yet the company wants to be known for: sandals, shoes, socks, bags, cosmetics (creams, cleansing, oils) and belts, mattresses, frames, beds, and pillows.

 

Birkenstock also saw the opportunity in sleep systems and connected the world of a Shoe with Sleeping. In their words:

“Taking a great idea one step further: Just like the original BIRKENSTOCK footbed, our anatomically designed sleep systems also adapt to the shape of your body. This enables our mattresses, slatted frames and beds to support and ease the strain on the human body in an ideal manner when lying – helping you sleep as comfortably as possible. Feel refreshed from tip to toe.”

If you think this sounds like any other sleeping systems brand, then you are right – it does. Great mattresses adapt to your body and all great sleeping systems help you sleep as comfortably as possible, so you can feel refreshed when it is time to wake up…   

The thinking inside the company must have something like this: we are known for our “anatomically shaped cork-latex footbed” – this is all about adapting. In which growing category can we extend this thinking? SLEEP SYSTEMS!

The question is: will consumers buy Sleep Systems from a high-quality shoe and sandal brand?

Turn it around, would people buy Shoes or Sandals from sleep systems brands like Tempur or Hästens because they have great nights of sleep?

I seriously doubt it.

The secondary problem with these many line extensions is that Birkenstock signals that they are not so serious about what the brand is known for: shoes and sandals. Shoes and sandals are now part of the many other things the brand does.

In other words: if you have to make a call on buying shoes and you can choose between a brand that is only designing, manufacturing and selling shoes or one that does shoes, skincare, bedding and more… which one would you pick? Most often, the specialist wins over the generalist.

The best path for Birkenstock would have been to do exactly what Google and Facebook recently did: sell products with different target audiences or purchase intensions under different brands. The product looks so great that it would be a shame if they do not succeed because of the position Birkenstock has in the mind of the buyer: Birkenstock = Shoe/Sandals.

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception, Portfolio

Birkenstock sandals and shoes going natural skin care

Birkenstock stands for comfortable and stylish quality sandals and shoes. With Birkenstock Natural Skin Care, the company moves into a new category. 

Birkenstock is known for its quality sandals and shoes, using the legendary footbed, providing support and comfort since 1774. A quick search on Google confirms the strong positioning.

The brand is moving in many directions. Its 1774 line is taking a position in the luxury sandals and show segment. Birkenstock joined forces with, for example, Maison Valentino, “Dior by Birkenstock” (reread the last three words again…), and other high-end brands.

At the same time, the brand is moving into a new category with “Birkenstock Natural Skin Care”

Birkenstock line extensions
Birkenstock line extension logos

 

While the 1774 product line is connects to the Birkenstock core, Natural Skin Care is an actual departure into a new category.

The product development team connected the world of sandals and shoes with skin care  using a cork cap on all-natural skin care products.

The question is: will consumers buy natural skin care products from a high-quality shoe and sandal brand?

Like any other professional company, Birkenstock has probably done all the research to answer the question with a firm Yes.

My experience is that consumers who purchase the core product are often asked whether they would buy the line extended products as well.

The answer is often Yes, simply because the people who were asked the question already like the core product. Never mix the intention to purchase with an actual purchase decision. People buying skin care products will do so in the context of the skin care category. Birkenstock competes with brands like SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, Kiehl’s, and Rituals. A tough one!

To answer whether Birkenstock Natural Skin Care will be a huge success inside the skincare category, we could turn the question around. Would Kiehl’s “Finest Apothecary Skincare” ever be a success as the finest shoe and sandal brand? I doubt it.

What Birkenstock could have done is to apply the Conquer strategy: growing a new brand in a new category. Using a new brand gives freedom to operate and grow into currently impossible areas. At the same time it is also easier to stop without harming the brand in the original category. The Birkenstock Natural Skin Care products look great on the paper – it would be a shame if they do not succeed because of the “wrong logo”.

Brand Promise, Perception

Apple understands how to (not) do discounts

Black Friday is the day many brands offer discounts. Strong brands, like Apple, never discount the core products.

For companies, sales discounts are a great way to boost short- term sales. It is an approach with guaranteed success. Even people who do not need the product right away might buy because of the great discount. Like with everything, there is a flip side to discounts.

1. Postponing purchases
Consider carefully discounts for products that are not fast- moving consumer goods but substantial investments for consumers. Consumers can often wait to make the purchase when it is not highly necessary. It is not uncommon for people to sleep on the old bed a few months longer and wait for a good discount.

2. Creation of artificial purchase cycles
Some companies run discounts during specific times of the year. When consumers know about the cycle, they will wait for the following discount round. The brand has unwillingly created an artificial purchase cycle.

FujiFilm is a company with artificial purchase cycles. The company runs pretty steep discounts on its cameras and lenses in spring, summer, and winter. People who are in the FujiFilm camp make purchase decisions three times per year. If the desired products are not on sale in the current round, chances are the dream kit will show up in the next round.

3. Abandonment of retail prices
Discounts reduce the suggested retail sales prices of products in the mind of the consumer. Once buyers have seen a printer in a special offer for US$69, they won’t pay the US$99 suggested retail price ever again. Getting the product cheaper has now become a real possibility. The discount helped the short-term sales but made the brand and product positioning weaker.

 

The alternative to discounts
The best alternative to discounts is to provide perks around the core product. For example, a brand known for its leading Music composition software should not discount the core product, the What of the brand. Instead, it should provide extra perks around the core product like giving a plug-in or sound bank for free.

Apple follows this strategy. The company hardly ever gives direct discounts but turns discounts into Apple Gift cards. Of course, the Gift Cards are to be used in the Apple Stores.

Perks are a great way to give people ‘a good deal’ while in their minds, the value perception of the core product has not changed.

——
This post is taken from my new book Win With What – the first category-led growth book.

Brand Promise, Perception

Credibility is lost when you do not live up to what you stand for

When you repeatedly go against your mission and values, you lose credibility, and your position is in danger. The audience will start to drift – first, slowly towards other platforms. Drifting will accelerate once a critical mass through worth of mouth is reached. Then there is no way back. 

Brands are like people.

If you for example do not like how a friend behaves, you can simply decide to no longer hang out with your friend. The same goes for brands. If a brand behaves terribly, you can decide to stop engaging, buying, or using that particular brand.

It gets tricky when your friend says that living according to noble values is essential and even points the noble way of living out to others. It comes then as an unpleasant surprise when you learn that your friend is everything but living up those dearly hold and communicated values. We get confused because the friend’s behavior does not match the perception we have about the person. The person is no longer credible.  If the friendship continues, it will be an unhealthy one based on disbelief and issues with trust. If a brand stops living the values, the same reaction of disbelief and distrust appears. And over time, we will look for alternatives.

Today I encountered a trust issue with YouTube, the brand that has brought video sharing to the masses. YouTube helped to accelerate the growth of humans by bringing immense knowledge to the fingertips of everyone.

Already for some time, YouTube is actively censoring freedom of speech by removing videos or channels about medical information, science, scientists, specific news channels, or simply videos containing an opinion (how scientific it might be) that is going against a set of guidelines, therefore stopping the debate and opportunity for humans to learn.

Earlier this morning, I decided to take a look at the About YouTube page (link, archive ) to understand what the company is all about and the brand credibility with me.

The first thing you encounter on the about page is a clear mission statement. Unfortunately, YouTube is actually actively going against their own mission. For YouTube not everyone is the same, some deserve to  have a voice, while others unfortunately do not.

When we look at the values we see a similar pattern.

The Freedom of Expression is striking:

We believe people should be able to speak freely, share opinions, foster open dialogue, and that creative freedom leads to new voices, formats and possibilities.

If YouTube in the last year has shown one thing it is that it is not a real advocate of Freedom of Expression.

I have therefore one simple question for YouTube:

—-
Dear YouTube,

You have given me a lot of opportunities to enrich my knowledge on virtually any topic. I thank you for that.

Unfortunately, I am distrusting you and as your friend I see two options going forward:

  1. You live up to your values,
  2. You update the values to reflect your behaviour.

Either way is acceptable because strong brands provide clarity regarding what they stand for and consistency in execution using company values as a steering compass. Only this way, they remain credible.

Make your choice.

—-

Photo by Adam Fejes from Pexels

Brand Promise

Strong brands do not need discounts

The impact of discounting products on the short and long term. 

The Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales are almost over. Consumers who got some deals are happy, and so are businesses. 

For companies, sales discounts are a great way to boost short term sales. It is an approach with guaranteed success. If you want to increase the sales bonus, then start offering discounts! When your product is in demand, you will notice that even people who do not need it right away might buy it because of the deal. 

Like with everything, there is a flip-side to the discount deals craziness – I like to call them deal traps, and here they are:

Postponed purchases of higher value items in general

If your product is NOT a fast-moving consumer product but a substantial investment for consumers, you must consider any possible discount you are providing. Imagine if I am in the market for an expensive bed, I could easily wait till Black Friday to purchase if it saves me 30% of the new price. Believe it or not… people are willing to wait till the next round of discounts. And at the same time, they do know the room to negotiate.   

Artificial purchase cycles, esp with higher value items 

A great example of this discounting is FujiFilm. In Spring, Summer, and Winter, they run pretty steep discounts on cameras and lenses. Now how often do people buy cameras and lenses? If you are in the Fuji camp, you should make your purchase three times per year! And what happens when a camera or lens is you like to purchase is not on sale? Then wait -if you can- till the next seasonal offers. Changes are your dream kit will show up at some point. 

Suggested retail prices do no longer exist.

Discounts reduce the suggested retail sales prices of the products in the mind of the consumer. Once you have seen a printer in a special offer for 69EUR, you won’t pay that 99EUR suggested retail ever again. Perception is why strong brands never engage in discounts – because discounts perceptually make the brand and product positioning weaker. 

Apple only recently engages in discounts, but they are never direct discounts – always in Apple Gift cards, to be used in the Apple Stores. You pay the full price and get rewarded with Gift cards. This way, the value perception of the product in the mind of the buyer won’t change.

So, what is the alternative to consider?

Never discount your core product but provide perks around it. For example, if your business is, let’s say, Music composition software, then never create a deal on the software. Instead, provide perks and packages of items people get when they buy the software. For example: buy the software get a plugin for six months for free. 

Whatever you do, keep in mind that strong brands never do discounts and never need to do discounts. 

 

Brand Promise, Positioning

Why some companies change a successful brand positioning

Recently I got a LinkedIn message from a reader about my Volvo Positioning articles (see Article 1, Article 2, Article 3). The question was: WHY did Volvo make the change to dump its historic positioning around safety?

While I do not have the exact answer on the Volvo case – I have seen in my brand advisory business and previous corporate life a couple of reasons WHY companies change their positioning.

 

The four top reasons I have come across for making big changes in positioning:

1: Boredom internally or with agencies
Many times people inside the organization and their supporting agencies get bored with the brand. They have worked on it for too long, the brand has become their daily reality and when constantly seeing and hearing the same things, it is only natural for people to get bored. Yet, consumers only interact and think about your brand a fraction of the time you spend with it. And that valuable time is needed to keep reminding them about something they know! Unfortunately, most brands fall sooner or later in the boredom trap.

 

2: Significant change in shareholders
New owners are often THE reason to make changes. After all, why would one need NEW leadership if all stays the same? In many ways, shareholders also expect that… when new leadership comes in big things are about to happen… and shares/ profits / … should go up. This is what likely happened to Volvo.

Ford Motor Company offered Volvo Cars for sale in December 2008, after suffering losses that year.  On 28 October 2009, Ford confirmed that, after considering several offers, the preferred buyer of Volvo Cars was Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent of Chinese motor manufacturer Geely Automobile. On 23 December 2009, Ford confirmed the terms of the sale to Geely had been settled. A definitive agreement was signed on 28 March 2010, for $1.8 billion. (source)

 

3: CV builders
Another one to watch for – CV builders have an interest in well… building the CV, and that means… something substantial needs to happen to the company they work for (‘the host’).  Something really substantial is of course to change the positioning of a brand – a big CV ticket item!

 

4: New Marketing Lead
An obvious one – but when companies assign a new marketing lead, they do expect the marketing to change. There is nothing more profound and more interesting to do for a marketer than changing the positioning of a brand.

 

Now that you know some of the key reasons why companies change their positioning, let me explain HOW you can reinforce your positioning.

Keep the brand linked to a category or a ‘job to be done’.
For example, in case of Volvo the category is/was safety. The job the brand does/did was to protect the family in the best possible way.

Of course, over time many other cars have gotten safe as well, but only one brand can be the safest. So, the only job Volvo had to do, is to make sure consumers continue to link the brand Volvo with Safety. This is done through product development with a  focus on safety features, linking the brand to general traffic safety PR campaigns, and promote safety features in marketing … because even though other brands are safe too, the brand Volvo has a perceptual advantage.  And above all… why would Volvo want to waste millions of EURs in over many years build-up brand positioning?

Shift your category or ‘job to be done’ to an adjacent category if your current category is not relevant anymore
For example, analog photo camera’s are not that relevant anymore, but cameras (still) are. So, in this case, your job as a brand owner is to shift the brand from a camera that is analogue to a camera that is digital. There are plenty of examples that this works (Canon, Nikon), and the best being Fujifilm. Fujifilm was able to transition some of their amazing analog film rolls as simulations in their digital products. Fujifilm reinforced what made them big in the first place, just in a different, but adjecent category!

 

In conclusion – whenever you do change your positioning, keep in mind that you do it for the right reasons and that you need to continually build on the brand that you own in the mind of the consumer.  It is not just about “trying something new”, “renewing the essence of the brand” or “exploring the cool edges of the brand”. After all, learning and confirming the perception of a brand  is done best through repetition.