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(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/tiger.jpg alt: )
**There are many brands that find a gap in the market and make a big impact quickly with their creative idea, then fade away again just as abruptly; with Snuggies, Croc shoes and Furbies to name but a few.**
So how can you create a brand that doesn’t just enjoy short-term success, but is around for generations to come?
Strangely, while the (link: http://es.nielsen.com/news/documents/BigBrandsFI.pdf text: most popular cereals of 1949) are still some of the best selling today, with Kelloggs, Weetabix, and Shredded Wheat still going strong, the shampoo brands of the same time are long since gone. It seems that these brand’s strong emotional engagement, quality product and effective marketing campaigns have seen them go the distance for generations.
Here’s Superdream’s top tips for delivering a coveted product for years to come:
### **Emotional engagement**
So is it that cereal brands survive the years whilst shampoo brands seem to have a much shorter shelf life? It seems that the age a person first engages with a brand is critical here. A child engages with a brand when it is visible in their home and on TV, but there’s also a level of personal choice in it for them.
For instance, children often have some say in their breakfast cereal, and perhaps there are a few to choose from at the kitchen table at breakfast time. However they are unlikely to notice or care what furniture company made the chair they’re sitting on. They might not know what brand of chicken dippers you bought them, but they know they have the choice of Heinz ketchup or Hellman’s mayonnaise to put on them.
Shampoo, alcohol, fashion and home furnishing brands tend to be ones we make an emotional engagement with at a much later age. Rather than it being a continuation of parental choice, it’s often a desire to be different from our parents that characterises our choice of these brands.
The younger the age of emotional engagement the more likely it is that the product will be passed down through the generations; the children’s bubble bath ‘Matey’ has been around since before 1960, while its contemporaries are products of the past. Making a product that will engage with young children means that it’s likely to last not only for that child’s lifetime, but for many generations to come.
### **Consistency is key**
It’s important that your brand remains consistent to retain customer loyalty. Your product needs to be consistent in its quality – it’s important that you are never known as the washing machine that leaks or the mascara that smudges, as this will be an often impossible image to shake off. A strong sense of your brand’s purpose can help maintain this consistency.
Your marketing strategy also has to be consistent across all mediums: print, digital and TV or billboard campaigns. Your logo, tagline and (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/colour-in-branding/ text: brand colours) need to always be present and driving home who you are and what you do. Your brand’s message and tone of voice is its personality; it won’t seem genuine any more if this changes or differs between advertising mediums.
Coffee brand Nespresso, for instance, (link: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/a-guide-to-brand-survival/4008172.article text: serves customers in three ways); via online, retail boutiques and its customer support telephone service. These are all aligned with a set of clear KPIs to keep to. The brand monitors everything carefully, gathering customer insight into what the customer likes and what they might want in the future. Every part of the business works together to provide customers with a personal service that keeps them coming back.
### **Avoid pricing down**
In tough economic times it can seem tempting to tempt customers by reducing your prices, but this isn’t a strategy that will work in the long run. Whilst you might think you have attracted loyal life-long customers, when the economy picks back up again you will be viewed as a discounted brand, cast aside in favour of more pricey market leaders.
Rather than reducing your prices during a recession, consider adding to the value of the current product. For instance, Pepsi might provide 25% more cola in a bottle rather than lowering the cost of the current size. Customers see this as a nice gesture rather than a cheapening of the brand.
### **Staff training**
It’s important that marketers are able to look to and predict the future to a certain extent, to make sure their brand stays relevant and desirable. However, (link: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/a-guide-to-brand-survival/4008172.article text: research has revealed that) ‘70 per cent of marketers rate their skills as very good or excellent for the job requirements of today, that figure drops to 56 per cent for five years’ time.’ 33% of marketers globally receive no formal training at all and instead learn on the job.
As marketing becomes increasingly complex and quickly-evolving, the companies that get the best results are going to be the ones that focus on developing the expertise of their staff. Staff that are able to effectively manage highly targeted campaigns and stay ahead of the game are the ones that will get the best results for their brand in the long term.