But a strong brand can also become a crutch.
See: Nike.
When you're trying to build a brand you're aggressive. Focused.
Your focus is on meeting your customer where they are and doing the things that create moments of delight for them. On doing the things that make people, first, fall in love with your brand and, then, talk about it to others. To begin to incorporate your brand into their identity.
Once you've built your brand—reached that mountain top—you can start to lose focus.
You start to forget about the work you did to get to this spot. You start to think you’re entitled to this spot.
Choices become based on financial models and balance sheet forecasts instead of what your fans want—what they love you for. You forget those dollars come from people.
And while you're looking in the wrong direction, the next group of brands is doing all the stuff you did to get here.
The Trap of the Shifting Audience
That podcast episode linked way back up there at the top covers a trap common to big name brands: the slow shift in audience focus.
Nike’s core brand positioning is the intersection of innovation and cool.
Being the industry leader. Pushing performance tech forward. Creating the cutting edge.
Being a fashion brand. Maintaining an “it” logo. Being a part of culture.
It accomplishes innovation through R&D and sports science. The envelope is always getting pushed.
It accomplishes the second by aligning with (sponsoring) athletes and culture creators.
This was on perfect display at the Olympics (per that podcast). The athletes in the spotlight wearing Nike’s newest tech in the pursuit of gold.
The problem?
That tech still isn’t on the shelves for consumers.
Nike’s customer focus has shifted from those that pay to wear to those that get paid to wear.
They believe that consumers still want “to be like Mike.” They’re missing that consumers want “to be like Mike right now.”
Consumer dollars don’t wait to buy (unless it’s waiting for a sales holiday), they buy elsewhere now.
The hot trend in fintech is Buy Now, Pay Later. The name says it all.
This is common at scale. It’s why we get so many bad CEO quotes we can learn from.
A brand has 3 acts:
Create name recognition & fans
Deepen the relationship with existing fans while adding to the fanbase. Continuing to serve the customer base while adapting to changes in culture and markets.
Every brand will one day slide out of the zeitgeist. How long that takes depends on act 2.
& remember:
Brands aren't owed anything.
&
Everything is customer service.