Evolving brands in times of change

The past two years, on the back of a pandemic, have taught brands how to pivot in difficult circumstances and survive in the midst of a crisis. The goal post keeps shifting in the wonderful land of brand marketers; be it everything from performance marketing to cookie consent demands. Today’s tactics are tomorrow's history. In days like this, it’s playing the patient long-game of applying what's worked in marketing over the decades or centuries for brands such as Coca-Cola , Walmart and Ford, that will successfully steer you through the the fluctuant tides and turbulences of the unpredictable world of marketing.

Stay on the front foot

What has stood the test of time is always worth applying. Alongside this, making tweaks and adaptations to your brand whilst staying true to the core aspects of it has always been a winning formula. Devise a hypothesis. Take it to the market. See how they react and iterate until your marketplace and brand hypothesis successfully overlap. The businesses that have lasted the longest have always been the ones who have best adapted to the shift in culture, consumerism and market climate. In addition, they build and defend trust earned from their audience, as in today’s world, being very vocal about a brand online, good or bad, can make a profound impact on any business.

Customer perception and metrics matter

According to recent research conducted by PwC, 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love just after one bad experience. This can even add more weight even more than the features, functionality and specification of that product or service. Furthermore, It takes up to 6-8 marketing touchpoints for a customer lead on average to convert to a buyer. This suggests the importance of not only customers have a flawless experience with your brand, but also to engage with them on multiple levels and platforms to solidify trust and familiarity. These engagement levels should be measured effectively and tracked, so necessary optimisations can be made to maintain a cycle of constant improvement. A customer-centric approach is key in this modern age.

Aside from building trust and brand loyalty from customers, privacy can also impact customer perception on a brand. Brands such as Apple have evolved with the current shift of society, to ensure that “privacy” is one of the cornerstones of its brand promise to consumers in an increasingly intrusive digital landscape. Although the phasing out of third-party cookies may impact the way customer touch points are established moving forward (e.g. tracked paid ads ), brands are still encouraged to leverage first-party data to make a similar impact. Building trust, respect and a solid reputation is a challenge, especially if there is the "temptation" to track potential buyers' actions to convert more sales leads, which never ends well. 

Timeless principles

In closing, core marketing principles are proven to be timeless. Times can change, but classic marketing principles don’t either, but merely evolve. Consider the 4P’s marketing framework.(Product, Price, Place, Promotion). This has evolved to become the 7P’s framework (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning and People). Another example is A technique for producing ideas. This is a book and framework authored by James Webb Young originally in 1940, which explores the process of idea generation, which is broken down into five clear steps. In the year 2022, this book and framework is still relevant today, with the latest edition published in 2003. Nevertheless, 82 years later, it’s proven these principles can still be put to good use.

Human characteristics don't change: we live for emotion, which we back up with facts. The issue is, that to elicit this emotion becomes more and more difficult, as we have transcended through different eras (e.g, what and who triggers certain emotions has changed drastically in the 2020s compared to the 60s, especially with the arrival of platforms like social media).