Podcast 
Brand Evolution or Brand Erosion?

In this episode, BrandExtract explores the tightrope walk of legacy brand evolution. As markets continue to change, customers expect more and competitors move faster. So, how do you evolve a legacy brand without losing what made it popular in the first place? In this podcast, Taylor, Bo, and Charity discuss how to evolve a legacy brand without losing its identity. 

Table of Contents

• Why, or when, do legacy brands need to evolve?
• What are the risks for brands that don’t evolve to meet market demands?
• How do you evolve a legacy brand?
• After defining non-negotiables, what other steps must be taken to modernize a legacy brand?

This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.

Q: Why, or when, do legacy brands need to evolve?

Bo: In some cases, people start to think we look old or we look tired, and sure, that can serve as inspiration for modernizing a brand. But leadership change can also affect a brand's evolution during mergers and acquisitions. A total market change can also necessitate an evolution. Or, you may want to signal there’s something new about your technology or project. The challenge is understanding what the legacy brand was known for or why it's valuable and important, and proceed from there.

Charity: You’re not living in a stagnant market. The market will change and evolve whether you like it or not; it's imperative that your brand keeps up. One of the biggest impetus is your market changing, where you need to re-examine how your brand is delivered to the market.

Taylor: Sometimes, modernizing these brands is not about abandoning a legacy. It's leveraging the credibility that you have cultivated, then finding a more relevant path forward. It doesn’t always involve a complete reinvention, but there is some modernization.

Q: What are the risks for brands that don’t evolve to meet market demands:

Charity: This isn’t a brand that I've worked with directly, but one case study has always stood out above all the others. Do you remember how big Kodak used to be? I think that's really a cautionary tale for a lot of us. Despite them actually inventing the digital camera in the 1970s, they almost entirely shelved their progress and tried to protect their film business, despite what was happening in the market. And as soon as mobile phones became accessible and you could take a photo anywhere with that phone, Kodak made a big mistake by failing to adopt to this new reality. Film format changed. It was necessary for them to change. And it really led to their brand erosion because they didn't change with the market, and didn't tap into what was happening within their audience.

Bo: Our industry is experiencing changes in technology right now. There are activities and tactics that are going to disappear. And if companies don't embrace those new trends, new opportunities and new ways to be efficient, then they'll go the way of the dodo. Legacy brands can very quickly lose their luster when there is a dynamic shift in market dynamics. 

Q: How do you evolve a legacy brand?

Taylor: So how do you evolve a legacy brand? We mentioned changes in product, pricing or technology driving this need. But when we're looking to evolve a legacy brand, how do we tactically approach this?

Charity: The first place that I would start is defining your brand’s non-negotiables. Define the crux of this brand, and define the essence of this brand. The essence may be a symbol. when I worked on KFC, the symbol was the Colonel. So that symbol wasn’t going anywhere. It's part of the brand values, because it was an owner-led brand. It was the Colonel’s values that made that brand and that company successful. The values of the organization remain the same, but they are expressed in a more modern way. So, define what those non-negotiables are before modernizing a brand. While your promise, purpose and tone stay the same, brand elements that tend to change are your visuals, the platform for the brand itself and the messaging formats so that you can reach the audiences. This includes reaching not only your legacy audience, but your new audience, while understanding that you need to resonate with both of them to grow.

Bo: You are who your brand is. If trends are changing to the point where your values could be in jeopardy or you are at risk of becoming obsolete, then you have to say, "Okay, this was a non-negotiable for us." How do we, within our values and who we are, make a shift to what matters most now? Once you have your non-negotiables and once you understand your core message and essence of your brand, you may cast this in a different light.

Q: After defining non-negotiables, what other steps must be taken to modernize a legacy brand?

Charity: You need to align internally with the people who are expressing your brand to your customers. You can’t have a brand out in the marketplace that says one thing, but when people meet employees from your organization, the experience is presented differently. Bo always talks about an assessment he did for a company, and this company wanted to be known for being fast and innovative, yet they had someone in the back room hand-sewing every product. You can't deliver on that proposition and that new positioning if you’re known for being hand-stitched. It’s imperative that you ensure that, internally, you are practicing what you're going to preach externally.

Bo: And a faster sewing approach may be what the industry prioritizes, but the customer instead may ultimately see value in custom-sewn products. So understanding that dynamic between the new position you want to pursue and the qualities your customer values most is critical. Is there a gap between these two perspectives? If so, you need to determine what really matters to your customer. To do that, you have to do the investigative work internally. Then, you can understand what the customer expects from you.

Charity: So really, the crux of that is that you don't just roll out a new brand; you need to embed this brand internally until it’s adopted and operational, then release it to the world.

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