What is it about successful brands that attracts change over time when added size, complexity, and maturity advance to depress the culture of innovation that set the world on fire in the beginning? How can legacy brands ensure the magic that existed at inception continues, to help author exciting new categories and solve unexplored consumer needs?
Growth and success over time can be accompanied by inherent self-inflicted barriers to the essence of why the business was such a runaway growth engine at the start. Size and distance from the initial creation era have a way of interfering later with new grand experiments.
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When scale reaches a level where substantial infrastructure is required to manage the growth, entrepreneurs who brought the original innovation energy and risk-taking eventually give way to professional management, stockholders, and safer bets all around. Reinvention and blazing uncharted territory are seen as less important than certainty, predictable consistency, and legislating ‘speed bump avoidance’ on the business highway of annual balance sheet progress.
- “You are as old as the risks you take. In many ways, aging is not the process of growing old, but rather the slow death of becoming overly protective, scared, and worried about losing what you have. Youth (and growth maybe?) is found in the energy of going for it, taking the risk, and trusting that you’ll figure it out along the way.” James Clear
The entire spirit of boldness at the beginning can be neutralized by processes designed to erase risk from the innovation pipeline. Hence popularity of the always conservative line extension.
Back at square one, there was an inspired innovator and inventor with a big idea
The genesis story usually revolves around a groundbreaking technology and product concept that ignites a new business category.
Consider Charlie Lubin, the erstwhile inventor of the Sara Lee brand and the frozen baked goods industry. By definition, baked goods don’t travel well, mainly because time and environment are not friends of perishable baked goods’ product quality. Charlie had big ambitions and wanted to expand his emerging seven-store Community Bakeshop empire in Chicago.
A request from an out-of-towner to get one of his amazing cream cheesecakes delivered to Texas kicked off a relentless period of experimentation. The outcome was the invention of ‘flash freezing’ technology designed to lock in just-baked freshness, texture, and flavor. His leap, along with the ubiquitous tin foil pan, enabled shipping and stocking of his famous cheesecakes virtually anywhere—thus, “Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee.” His dessert brand joined frozen foods inventor Birdseye in the grocery freezer case with widespread, scaled distribution.
In the early 1990s, Sara Lee operated the largest bakery in the world, in Deerfield, Illinois. But Charlie was long gone, having sold the company to Consolidated Foods. The bakery was a unit of a conglomerate aptly rebranded as Sara Lee Corporation, also the world’s largest producer of pantyhose (L’eggs). Headwinds eventually came to visit as health-conscious consumer expectations did a left turn, making All Butter Pound Cake less resonant when label readers increasingly scrutinized sugar, calories, and fat.
Exceptional legacy brands that innovated and thrived
Nike — Phil Knight and his waffle sole running shoe juggernaut.
Sargento – Leonard Gentine and the launch of the packaged shredded and sliced cheese business.
Apple – Steve Jobs and the invention of the desktop personal computer for everyone.
Ford – Henry Ford enabled affordable automobiles by creating assembly line manufacturing.
Molson beer – Young John Molson sailed to Montreal from England during the Revolutionary War. In 1786, he founded North America’s first beer brand — when drinking local water was dangerous. (What brand of anything we consume still lives after 240 years?)
Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, Heinz, Purina….businesses that all started with a remarkable formulation, an idea and process that was ground-breaking in its era and then rewarded with growth and expansion. They ushered in the ability to create enjoyment, convenient experiences, or solving needs for a huge addressable market.
However, more than a few businesses that start in their version of a garage and then move on to fame and fortune succumb to a form of bureaucracy that manifests in ‘don’t screw it up’ over let’s break this and reinvent.
Well, yeah, but with that generous asset base, you can acquire innovation, right? True. However, the list of great emerging brands that take the strategic buyout only to become a shell of their former selves is long. Large organizations are hardwired differently. They are culturally distant from the more nimble, less hidebound innovator organizations that feast on speed and inspired moves — not wed to existing manufacturing systems, embedded cost constraints or supply chain efficiencies.
After a few years lingering inside the “portfolio,” the once Golden Goose brand can lose its luster as systems and margin considerations weigh in to dumb down the more bespoke aspects of the original product vision, much to the dismay of brand fans.
Heritage is an interesting double edge device
Too often we find mature brands looking backward rather than forward. A historical reference to chronology. Timelines celebrating periodic business achievements are less interesting than meeting the consumer where they are now. The right frame for heritage is humanizing the creators via the emotion-laden struggles and triumphs assigned to building something entirely new.
Football is an old sport. It started in 1869 with an inaugural contest between Rutgers and Princeton. However, the NFL wisely doesn’t sell football or historical legacy. The league sells the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Their narrative celebrates superhuman effort, oversized commitments to achievement, dream-making, and the heartbreaking moments of the final 60 seconds in a losing game. This is about player heroism and moments of glory. A commitment to leaving it all on the field of battle.
Retaining your game
You are not the best and brightest because of your age, longevity, and historical perseverance. When Alexander Graham Bell created the first phone call in 1886, it was the start of a global transformation in communication. The experience of a voice transported magically over distance. It wasn’t about a product but rather the curation of a compelling new world.
We cited some excellent examples of bands that have largely avoided the traps of vanilla middle innovation. Proving that ‘swing for the fences’ remains a winning proposition. Your call to action includes:
Boldness
Differentiated
Groundbreaking
Fearless
New category creation
Consumer centricity
Leadership is the key to making this work. It starts at the top. Visionary leadership creates these episodes of rethinking a category by reimagining a better future for people. If your brand is well-served through a higher purpose and belief system, you likely carry the DNA for serious innovation plays. Start here with your heartfelt vision for an improved future. When leaders lead rather than focus on preserving what was, the cast can be set for conquering new territory.
Sure, it’s scary, but we’re all on the planet for a very short time, so why waste it on hewing to the middle pathway of presumed safety? Until a less constrained player enters and takes the category by storm.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Robert Wheatley, CEO of Chicago-based Emergent, The Healthy Living Agency.
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define and articulate what makes them competitive and valuable. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
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