We analyzed success stories like Arm & Hammer, Frito-Lay and Betty Crocker. We also looked at brands like Tropicana and Nokia who were victims of misguided revitalization. Brands that had successfully revitalized themselves to continue to win the hearts of their consumers over time had the following things in common:
1. Consumer Insights Focus
2. Innovation
3. Vision/Leadership
4. Staying true to core business strategy and,
5. Consistency.
On the basis the above, we derived the following learnings to achieve successful brand revitalization at any scale or any stage of product/service life cycle:
Consumer Insights
Identifying changing trends:
The majority of the brands that needed revitalization missed key trends that were driving the market at that time. Better late than never, some adapted to the changes successfully and were able to salvage their businesses.
Arm & Hammer had years of success as a solid brand that consumers had grown to trust. The 1960’s, however, noted a change in how people cooked and thereby affected a decrease in the use of Arm & Hammer. Originally the prevalent baking soda was used in recipes made from scratch, but with the introduction of pre-made baking mixes, the orange box was pushed towards the back of the shelf.
Product/category extension:
Since the lifestyle of the consumer population was changing, a fresh use for baking soda needed to be introduced. Church & Dwight focused on the two main differentiating characteristics of the product: deodorizer, cleaning agent. Arm & Hammer was reintroduced and successfully repositioned as a deodorizer for refrigerators and freezers. Arm & Hammer adroitly repositioned and extended a single brand to encompass new functionalities and a broader customer base. Today one can find Arm & Hammer brand as toothpaste, liquid laundry soap, cat litter, dental care gum and a deodorant/antiperspirant.
Listening to consumers:
Picking up on changing market trends is not enough. Brands need to pay heed to what it is that the consumers are saying by listening to their concerns and providing a solution for the same.
Frito Lay is the epitome of a company that stayed true to their core strategy and focused on revitalizing its existing brands rather than developing new brands. One of the major steps Frito-Lay took was to focus on rebuilding the quality of its brands like Tostitos after market research indicated that consumers felt the chips were too heavy, thick and crunchy. Frito-Lay thus, created the thinner, crispier Tostitos, which could be eaten alone, made into nachos or dipped into salsas, which were becoming increasingly popular. Frito-Lay listened to its consumers, tailored the product quality to suit consumer needs, enjoyed sales of about $200 million as Tostitos became the number five brand and continues to remain a market leader.
Innovation
Frito Lay’s reformulated both Lay's and Ruffles potato chips—the first time the Lay's formula had ever been changed. To enhance the flavor of both chips, the company developed a new frying process and switched from soybean oil to cottonseed oil. With consumers preferring less salty snacks, the sodium content of the chips was also reduced.
Betty Crocker is another example of a brand that consistently revamped its identity. Iconic Betty Crocker- the personality that never really existed but changed with time- had been embedded in the fabric of the American society so subconsciously, that no one ever questioned her real existence. When General Mills started offering tours of the Betty Crocker Kitchens, they had to be equipped with friendly staff and tissue papers to console women who painfully found out that Betty Crocker never really existed. Many quipped it was like knowing for the first time that Santa Claus did not exist. Since it’s inception in the 1920s to date, Betty Crocker has gone through many adaptations and changes to remain relevant to the changing times successfully.
In 1924 Betty Crocker first gained a voice in the nation first ever radio-cooking show. In 1936, she got a face. The widely circulated portrait reinforced the popular belief that Betty Crocker was a real woman. Over the next seventy-five years, her face has changed seven times: she became younger in 1955; she became a “professional” woman in 1980; and in 1996 she became multicultural, acquiring a slightly darker and more “ethnic” look. General Mills soon realized that they could not please everyone and replaced Betty Crocker’s face with by the easily recognizable red spoon logo.
Providing a unique customer experience by engaging consumers beyond products:
The Betty Crocker brand excelled at engaging its core consumers going beyond the premise of its products since the time of its inception. From the radio show about cooking and other housekeeping related topics to tours of their home-inspired kitchens where they developed recipes for the brand and recipe books etc, Betty Crocker positioned itself as an experience more than just a product. Today, the Betty Crocker brand is the category share leader in desserts.
Packaging:
A brand’s packaging is its most continuing and tangible communication medium, it’s important that it convey the brand experience that is aligned with the overall brand strategy. New packaging is like dawning a new identity for a brand. The change in its physical form should be refreshing and appealing and the same time, it needs to somehow, in an abstract manner, carry the legacy of the old packaging.
Sometimes, functional packaging changes are made to the packaging so as to make the product that much more convenient for the consumers. A few years ago, the Betty Crocker Warm Delights packaging took the brand to a new level of convenience. In less than two minutes, a consumer can enjoy a delicious dessert from an individual-serve microwavable bowl. The package sleeve design shows the bowl and clearly communicates that the product is single-serve, microwavable, convenient, and delicious. In a grocery aisle, where most products are sold in cartons, this package really stood out.
Vision
Top management support:
Brand revitalization needs the courage and perspective of strong leaders. Cadillac is a good example of how the decisions to bring back the brand from the dead came from the top management.
The brand started by bringing in new leadership with a holistic brand vision who had more than the credentials, but also the audacity to take the risks that were needed to overhaul the brand. Cadillac’s new lineup strived for breakthroughs in both design and engineering, providing fresh new product offerings that excited a younger customer base, but were very different from what the traditional Cadillac buyers would expect from the brand. Cadillac chose to travel down the daring pathway of a new performance-oriented positioning by introducing hot concept vehicles that came with the freshly streamlined Cadillac logo.
The new management team created the new vision and brand promise, led the re-engineering and re-designing efforts and developed sound marketing strategies that complimented the new direction that the new management team envisioned for the brand.
Staying true to the core business strategy:
A brand promise is an articulation of relevant and differentiating experiences that the brand will deliver to its customer, every time. Revitalization is necessary when either the core customer’s taste and preferences have changed, core consumers have aged or when competing products have pushed the brand off the retail shelves. However, the brand promise or the idea that the brand owns in its consumers' minds never changes.
Frito Lays wanted to be known as the “best snack on earth”. Using this as a guiding force, Pepsico altered, changed and mended all possible routes to achieve it’s business goal and ensured that the brand stayed true to the promise it made to its customers.
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*Special thanks to my teammates at NWU - Kripa Narayanan, Anka Jedry, Angela Ma
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