When a Brand Once-over Isn't Enough

Brandweek, Oct 18, 1999 by Carol Davies

I smile every time I open a magazine and find an ad for Oil of Olay cosmetics, because it takes me back a decade to a period when I had just begun managing what was then still a pink beauty fluid in Spain and happened to see a 100-year-old woman making an appearance on a national TV talk show. When the host asked how she stayed so young, she coyly whispered, "I use Oil of Olay ... every day." Not exactly the best endorsement when you're trying to shake an old-fashioned image and rejuvenate a brand.

In this case, the story had a happy ending, because we were readying the global launch of a line of moisturizing creams that was to play a crucial role in Oil of Olay's stunning makeover. Often, though, the story's ending is not so upbeat, when companies, due to a lack of conviction or know-how, find themselves unable to revive a tired, flagging brand in middle age. That means they're unable to effectively wrest profits from one of their most valuable assets, their established brand names.

It's not surprising that so many companies fail because it's often more difficult to revitalize an existing brand than to create a new one. Beyond having to deal with the restraints of an established equity, there are so many practicalities--profits to maintain, loyal consumers to keep happy, production cost targets to hit--that stand in the way of truly visionary thinking. Companies get so distracted by these day-to-day realities that they have trouble taking a cold, hard, objective look at what consumers really want, what their brand really stands for and what's really needed to reverse a decline.

Having helped scores of companies revitalize their brands, we've identified some clear pitfalls that can undermine a successful makeover of a middle-age brand.

* Don't straddle the fence. Recognizing the need to attract new consumers, but fearful of alienating the loyalists, many companies try to be all things to all people. The disastrous outcome is that consumers become confused and no longer know why they should buy your brand--so they don't. SnackWell's is a good example. When consumers started hungering for better-tasting snacks and deserting low-fat products, SnackWell's added some fat and a new age-y "live well, snack well" promise to the mix, but in the process lost the bite of what the brand stood for. Is the brand low-fat, goodtaste, high esteem or what?

To avoid this pitfall, be ruthlessly focused in your targeting, whether by deepening your relationship with current core consumers or migrating a more promising base, as we were able to do when we repositioned Caltrate for light and sporadic users of calcium through the message, "It's never too late for Caltrate."

* Don't start by looking at your brand and asking how you can change it. By focusing on what doesn't fit instead of entertaining what might fit, companies often constrain truly inventive thinking. Instead, start with a clear picture of your target consumer, asking what they need and want, and work backwards to how your brand can deliver. That's what Avon did by not obsessing over what it was--a company of in-home sales ladies--and instead asking how it could fulfill the needs of more upscale, convenience-savvy women it sought. The result was a successful foray into mall kiosks, the Internet and showcase stores.

* Don't assume your brand is currently competing in the same category as when it was first launched. So often, a brand's business declines not because the quality or brand image is poor, but because the world around it has changed. The challenge, then, isn't fixing the brand but updating it. Instead of trying to make a better-tasting cake mix, for example, the objective might be to make a more convenient one that still tastes good.

In that way, Calgon, once saddled with its image as grandma's bath product, has reinvented itself to be a competitive player in today's bath-and-body bonanza with new fragrances, product forms and packaging that make its legendary "take me away" promise engaging and relevant.

* Don't forget new products. In many cases, even the most insightful strategy and memorable advertising are not strong enough to revive a brand. But a new product or product upgrade can be the engine of revitalization, asserting in the strongest possible way that "we've changed." We helped Glade refresh its business with Plug Ins, an original type of air freshener; new products have been the bedrock of many highly visible revitalizations: The Apple iMac, Winston Additive Free, Target's Michael Graves collection.

* Don't be pessimistic. Many companies don't fully believe that a mature brand can be revitalized, leading them to underallocate talent, energy and money to a worthwhile task. Instead, put your best strategic and conceptual thinkers--usually new-product people--on the job, and give them the authority, resources and freedom to make bold changes.

Carol Davies is managing partner at Kane, Bortree & Associates, N.Y., a marketing consulting firm specializing in new product ideas, positioning and repositioning, and brand equity leveraging.