The Need to Change

People’s lives today are changing in rapid, dramatic ways that we could only dream of a few years ago. The role brands play has to change along with that. To take a brand to the next level, you need to deepen your understanding of the target audience: how their lives and needs are changing. You must continue to develop the product and enhance its attributes so it remains in line with consumers’ lives. Smart marketers recognize how people’s lifestyles are changing and are constantly looking for ways to make sure their products and communications continue to be relevant. Strong brands can survive forever if they continue to understand and adapt. But to do that, several things must happen. You can never take for granted that what made you successful will continue to make you successful, but you should always know why it made you successful. You need to understand how the marketplace has changed and continue to develop products that deliver on that understanding. This is not to say you should totally reinvent the brand, because that causes confusion. People don’t care enough to stay with weak brands or inferior products. They don’t have the time to follow brands that keep changing what they are.

The enormous turnover in management is one of the big problems in business today. A new CEO or marketing director comes in, begins questioning what has been done, and changes the marketing focus of the company. That lack of consistency can be very dangerous and damaging to strong brands.

Here is an amazing statistic: Something like 53 percent of the Fortune 500 companies that existed in 1983 aren’t around anymore. That’s right, more than half of the biggest, most powerful companies in the world just 20 years ago aren’t around today. But they have been replaced. Look at how we all live out lives today. We buy our coffee at Starbuck’s, our clothes at Banana Republic, our books at Amazon. Home Depot, Staples, Circuit City: Name a category and it’s likely that a brand that didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago is dominating our everyday lives. Why? The people who created these brands understood how our lives are changing and developed products, marketing and advertising that made them an essential part of people’s lives.