Know thyself
David Bowie is the classic example from popular culture. Leading trends in music, art and fashion, he drastically reinvented his appearance and sound from album to album, but you’d never not recognise any of his output as ‘Bowie’. More recently Beyonce and Taylor Swift have made an enormous impact over way longer careers than your average pop star. All have an unchanging substance behind the evolving style. That substance means they’re recognisably ‘them’, even when significantly changed. And it gives them the freedom to borrow from history and all sorts of fields of reference to create exciting newness.
The most successful brands are the same. We recently had the huge pleasure of Lucky Generals Founder and strategy supremo, Andy Nairn, in the agency to talk to us about the principles in his book, Go Luck Yourself. His first tip for “stacking the odds in your brand’s favour” was to “appreciate what you’ve got”. Just as he helped his client, Hovis, to do in 2008 when they created the public’s favourite ad of the decade. The original brief was reject heritage to make Hovis appear modern, but instead they mined the brand’s unbeatably rich history to become culturally resonant with this beautifully stirring, and essentially true, TV spot. More recently, Lucky Generals have done it in style with their revival of ‘Made in Scotland from Girders’ for IRN-BRU.
At this year’s IPA Effectiveness Conference, we learnt about the Heinz brand’s highly effective turnaround based on the platform “It has to be Heinz”. Eroding value with functional and disparate messaging across the brand portfolio, Heinz marketing had lost its way - until it raided its own archives and combined Henry J Heinz’s obsession with doing “a common thing uncommonly well” with its consumers’ uncompromising devotion, to conclude that ‘Heinz is made with and inspires irrational love’. The resulting “It has to be Heinz” platform has steadily grown value across the whole portfolio, with award-winning creative executions across everything from TV to buses.
Look back to look forward
Our own work for ScottishPower, supporting them make the transition from utilities supplier to provider of green technology, took a similar approach: looking back to find what has long been true of ScottishPower (commitment to green energy, Scottishness) and weaving this into the new fabric of its future-facing call, “Let’s change to greener living”. Its brand mascot, Bruce, is a breed of butterfly indigenous to Scotland, and his wings are the shape of the leaf element of the brand’s logo. Scottish Widows, too, have recently undergone a major brand refresh. With the goal of modernising, they’ve taken inspiration from some of their historical brand logos and typefaces, universalised the famous widow in the form of a red icon, and combined these with a refreshed colour palette and mobile-first graphic elements.
Editions of you
The lesson is that while change is non-negotiable, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The best brands - and this was proven in Jim Collins’ Good to Great - know what they’re for and about, not limited to specific products, but more broadly offering and purpose. Defining that is the first - incredibly valuable and liberating - step in preparing for a new direction, and being able to be reactive to market threats and opportunities. Think of how quickly Specsavers and Aldi can jump on trends, precisely because who they essentially are (and, even better, their public facing comms/strapline) doesn’t change.
Perhaps then, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (which predates Bonfire Night and even Halloween) is the most appropriate seasonal reference. It’s not about destroying all that’s gone before, but renewal: letting go of what’s no longer useful while honouring the past, all in order to move forward. If it’s time for your brand to do the same, we’d love to help.
