I have been very fortunate to work in brand marketing for many years as a marketer but also as an educator. With hundreds of students from different markets and working across different functions, most of my students know that being consistent is a valuable principle in brand building.
PHEW! That is one less thing for me to teach!
Whether it is a bitten apple logo, a sport-loving cartoon tiger called Tony, or a jingle where Justin Timberlake tells you that he is “lovin’ it”, we can recognise brands that have been very active in their consistent use of distinctive core assets; assets which have been used to help create a sharply branded world for the consumer to experience. But consistency is more than just repeatedly using brand assets in your execution. It is also about presenting the brand to your consumers with the distinctive voice, tonality, and personality that you have identified for your brand.
For many people executing with consistency takes on a very literal meaning and they may find it hard to strike a balance of knowing where to find flexibility with the brand. They feel limited of working within very stringent guardrails, they believe you shall not divert from the brand book, nor that your brand should engage in topics outside of what is directly within your traditional remit of discussion.
By having this attitude, you run the risk of aging the brand and disconnecting it from your consumer. There are many famous brand failure stories and the demise stems from the fact that they didn’t adapt to accommodate the changing landscape or consumer needs.
I am very happy to report that, from my personal experience, most marketers and brand owners don’t need to be told that “consumer is king” – they already know this. But the challenge is knowing where to play on those changes, and where to draw the line and say, “this part of the brand should stay as is”.
In my previous post, I talked about how a brand positioning should be treated as a North Star and how it can guide you and your colleagues in making decisions for your brand. A brand positioning should be broad enough to give you the ability to be flexible, whilst providing you also guardrails so that you don’t stray too far from what your brand stands for and how it wants to be seen. That will allow you to be more in tune with what is happening and hence will make your brand more contextually relevant. In marketing terms, this is called being “freshly consistent” and alludes to the more flexible approach to consistency.
The best part is that flexing and making necessary changes should be a fun and rewarding part of the job. It requires both strategic and creative rigour, which is peaked by the fact that you could be creating something that changes the direction of your brand, but also could potentially create a stronger bond with your audience more than ever before.
As it is summer 2022 when I write this, I am one of the many people who have been excitedly waiting for the Top Gun: Maverick, pretty much since I heard that a sequel was going to be a reality. I won’t give away how old I was when Top Gun came but I think it is enough for me to say that the original movie was a key milestone in my youth! For me, the sequel delivered beyond my expectations. I just loved the fact that it felt so true to the original movie, and I think the producers knew that they had to deliver on the key brand assets to satiate the consumers:
· Tom Cruise with his easy-to-forgive tendency of disobeying orders and breaking the rules. Special mention also goes to the leather bomber jacket, Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses, striped helmet, jumpsuit…OH and the white Navy uniform
· Val Kilmer – his cameo provides Maverick with the encouragement he needs, just like Iceman always did
· Goodness gracious great balls of fire!!!
· Footage from the naval carrier – both action and sweeping panoramic shots
· Hiiiiiighway to the danger zone….
· Motorcycle journeys (although nobody is wearing a helmet…. this detail should have evolved with the times!!!)
· OH! The (mostly) topless beach football (not beach volleyball) with very shiny and oiled 6-pack torsos
(Source: Yahoo Movies UK)
I think any viewer will leave the cinema feeling that Top Gun: Maverick is a true homage to the original. It felt truly part of the same world whilst still feeling refreshed with the new story and the updates that have been made to reflect the world the characters live in. The clearest development for me, which is very welcome today, is that the cast was much more diverse. There was even a female pilot (hence not everyone was topless in the beach football scene). Additionally, it was great to see the female romantic interest as a business-owner. The producers and writers leaned into the cultural movement of breaking gender and racial stereotypes that would have been accepted in 1986 when the first movie came out, and what you get is something refreshed but still true to the Top Gun world.
Another movie example is still very much still in Hollywood, considering the recent Depp v. Heard defamation trial, the questions have come out from the final verdict circulate around Johnny Depp’s career. The initial trial in the U.K and this trial have affected his options and it has been made clear that he will no longer star in future Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This franchise introduced Johnny Depp to a whole new younger generation, who watched the charismatic Captain Jack Sparrow’s antics as he encountered a new nemesis and their crew from a distant part of the world. The subsequent storylines may not have been as strong as the original movie, but you knew exactly what you would be getting: scary villains with emotional backstories that spurn their evil motivations, strong-willed female characters out to prove themselves to their male counterparts, and general action and humour from the anti-hero whom everyone is rooting for!
(Source: deviantart.com)
The franchise works well because the Disney studio consistently serves the audience the elements that made it a success in the first place, whilst refreshing the story and the characters to keep customers paying.
Now, who will step into Captain Sparrow’s sea-soaked boots? Margot Robbie is apparently tipped to be the replacement and it is exciting to think that a woman could step into this iconic role. Yet I would be interested to see what else Disney keeps, changes, removes or creates to introduce the new generation of POTC.
So, when we think about how to be sharp in our execution yet freshly consistent, I do encourage you to look at the opportunities ahead of you. Additionally, it is beneficial to keep track of the distinctive elements of your brand and assess from time-to-time which ones you should decide to keep, lose, update, or create (and why). When analyzing your core assets, you need to look backwards in time (which assets have been crucial in building your brand) and look forward (what is happening in today’s context, trends etc.) and then decide if you want to Keep, Lose, Update or Create them.
I’d also recommend that you take the time to review all your brand executions together as a way to ‘visually’ check the consistency of your brand in all aspects of brand development and execution. Not only does it help to understand what your consumer sees, but it is also helpful to guide you as a brand guardian to know what fits with the brand’s positioning when you are about to execute in the market.
To get you started with this track, I want you to think about your brand today and I would encourage you to reflect on the following points:
- Do you feel that your brand has been built in a consistent AND engaging way? If yes, how is your team facilitating this?
- If not, what is your team currently doing to build the brand? How is that affecting its growth?
- Are you clear on what your brand’s distinctive core assets are? Are you clear which are the ones to keep? Lose? Update? Is there a new core asset that you should be creating for your brand?
- How well is your equity aligned with your positioning? What have consumers said about your brand that is aligned to OR disconnected from your positioning?
Remember to keep executing in a way that your activities and campaigns are recognisable to your brand but take advantage of the cultural changes, social trends and executions that ensure brands act consistently over time. It will guide the team to choose a course of action around some opportunities or issues that may arise in the market and tackle it in line with the brand’s positioning.
We cover these foundational principles and the tools and frameworks to facilitate this during our 7-week Brand Positioning & Strategy Bootcamp. We believe in the power of active learning, so we created a learning experience to help facilitate that beyond the on-demand video lessons. You will learn how to grow brands through applying exercises on tools and frameworks we introduce during the bootcamp, and live Zoom sessions with myself, visiting consultants and the rest of your cohort.
Head here to learn more: https://www.brandgrowthbootcamp.com/site/brand-positioning-and-strategy
We are also providing group discounts so get in touch if this bootcamp is something you and your team could do together!
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