Making old brands new - marketing strategies

American Demographics, Dec, 1997 by Brian Wansink

Burma Shave, Brylcreem, Pepsodent, Ovaltine, William's Lectric Shave, RC Cola, Barbasol, Hai Karate, Black Jack Gum. At one point, these brands were widely recognized and frequently purchased. Many have now faded or become "ghosts" of their former selves. Their numbers are legion. In 1993, Nabisco reported 29 ghost brands; Shering-Plough 17; and Smith-Kline 14, according to Stuart Elliott of the New York Times.

While some fading brands are dying because of shifting consumer needs, heavy competition, or waning awareness, others are suffering from marketing malpractice. Many well-trained brand managers believe that brands--like people--follow predictable, irreversible life cycles: they grow, they mature, they decline, and they die. When sales fall, they respond by cutting back on marketing activities and reallocating funds to new brands.

Without ongoing investment of time, thought, or money, a fading brand's sales will continue to drop. This strengthens the original prognosis that there's no help for an old brand, thus leading to even less attention and care. Some brands are nurtured back to health when this happens, but many die a lingering death as heavily discounted or regionalized brands.

Lately, however, the $75-to-$100-million price tag on launching a new brand is renewing corporate interest in the less costly option of revitalizing old brands. Not all brands are worthy of a new life. The challenge for brand managers is determining which brands can be revitalized and how best to do it. The Second Time Around Many companies take little time or effort to understand the life and death of ghost brands, which is why "brands that fail tell no tales." Yet many mature brands have untapped potential. At the Brand Lab at the University of Illinois, we set out to identify what makes a brand a candidate for revitalization by analyzing mature brands that were successfully relaunched, and older brands that are still well liked by consumers.

First, we collected extensive information on 84 brands of consumer packaged goods. This included annual dollar sales, volume sales, and distribution channels, such as grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and drugstores. Then we talked to 360 members of the Brand Revitalization Consumer Panel, a group of primarily female household decision-makers from five states. We asked them a series of subjective questions about their favorite brands among the 84, and what distinguishes them from similar products.

When we matched data from panelists' interviews with objective information on the brands, here's what we learned. In general, brands that have been revitalized were perceived as having meaningful characteristics that set them apart from other brands. They typically have a time-tested heritage or reputation, are widely distributed in grocery stores, drug stores, and mass merchandisers, and are under-advertised and under-promoted compared with other brands in their category. Revitalized brands weren't the cheapest, either. They tended to be medium- to premium-priced products.

Jeffrey Himmel, chairman and chief executive of the Himmel Group in New York, is a veteran of brand revitalization. His firm has breathed new life into Porcelana fade cream, Topol toothpaste, Doan's Pills, Gold Bond Medicated Powder, and Ovaltine. The best candidates for revitalization, he says, are high-margin products with few shelf-keeping units (SKU). SKUs are assigned to each size and variety of consumer packaged good on the market. Crest toothpaste, for instance, once had more than 60 SKUs. Products that come in multiple variations often have difficulty communicating a focused marketing message. The best brands to revitalize are those that can be contract-manufactured through multiple sources, and can be heavily advertised on radio or television 52 weeks a year, says Himmel.

These criteria have worked well for the Himmel Group. In 1973, it purchased Topol tooth polish for $200,000. Over the next ten years, Himmel built it into a brand with sales of $23 million a year. The same strategy raised Ovaltine from its deathbed to a vital, high margin, market leader.

Once a brand is chosen for revitalization, it's on to the work of getting it back into the minds--and households--of consumers. Brand managers have two opportunities to influence customers: when they choose a brand, and when they use it. Choosing Old Faithful Consumers shun old brands for many reasons. Bay Rum might remind a 20-year-old of his feeble grandfather. Aspergum is perceived as a relic by cold sufferers, who assume that modern medicine has come up with a better treatment for sore throats. Yet the underlying reason for rejecting mature brands is unfavorable attitudes toward them. In research with our consumer panel, we often heard that older brands had lost their appeal, lost their identity, and were overshadowed by competing brands.

Altering the characteristics of a brand or changing its packaging are often good ways to sweep away negative attitudes and boost sales. These changes aren't without risk--witness New Coke. But for some brands, a new look on the inside or outside has made a positive difference.