Do you remember Blockbuster? At one time, the chain of 9,000 video-rental stores seemed to be everywhere. Families spent their Saturday or Friday evenings perusing the shelves for the latest releases or old classics.
However, as the industry and world changed, and movie-renting habits evolved, Blockbuster failed to adapt, even at one time declining an offer to partner with an emerging new company called Netflix. Now there are about a dozen Blockbuster stores left.
The Blockbuster story isn’t an uncommon one. Brands often don’t recognize the need to adjust to changing markets and circumstances until it’s too late.
“Standing still while changes rage around you is a formula for failure,” says Larry Light, a global brand revitalization expert and CEO of the business-consulting firm Arcature.
With the right decision making, brands can live forever, says Light, co-author with Joan Kiddon of “Six Rules for Brand Revitalization”. But too often brands get into trouble due to the self-inflicted actions of their owners.
Four Ways To Bury Your Brand-
- The belief that what worked yesterday will work today. Customers change, the world changes, brand reputations change and competition changes. Doing what once worked when the current landscape is different makes no sense.
- The failure to innovate. In an ever-changing, increasingly competitive marketing world, brands need customer-insight-driven innovation to stay relevant.
- The lack of focus on the core customer. The list is long of brands that lost focus on the core customer and suffered because of it. “Making sure that loyal customers don’t defect to a competitor is key to the bottom line,” Light says. “Research we did at Arcature showed that loyal customers are eight times as valuable as someone who just considers your brand.” Losing a small percentage of core customers will account for a disproportionate amount of lost income for the brand. It will also carve into the brand’s image and reputation.
- The backtracking to basics. People often talk about a need to “get back to the basics” when a brand encounters trouble. But while getting the basics right is certainly necessary, “back to basics” is not a strategy. “What got the brand to where it is today will not get the brand to where it needs to be tomorrow,” Light says. Finally, he says, you also need to define what elements of the brand’s past are no longer relevant.
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Source: CPA Practice Advisor