Over the years, many of the top advertising agencies in the world created campaigns for the brand, infusing it with a lot of creative ideas. Internally, the myth was that the brand was still “special.” But if we were honest, there was zero differentiation or at least too little.
However, over the years, in a game of multiple competitive moves and intensifying competitive dynamics, four or five other brands emerged that, in essence, offered consumers the same or better propositions. In other words, when the brand first launched, it addressed a relevant consumer insight, and its proposition was new and different from all other competitors. Our analysis identified that the brand positioning was once differentiated in the early days but grew increasingly like other brands. Changing a stagnant mindset to a mindset of aggressive growth changed everything. I asked my team two simple questions: “What would we need to do to double the business within two years?” and “why do we believe the brand is not growing?” I only had one condition: Their answers had to be brutally honest, without politics or unaddressed elephants in the room. Brands with decreasing annual growth rates, flat performance, or decline always signal that the consumer insight they address, the benefit they provide, or the go-to-market strategy they execute have significant gaps and weaknesses. When I assumed responsibility for this brand, I decided not to accept the status quo. Growth is always a result of the brand’s mindset and management team.
When organizations believe the cash cow myth and feel content with their brand size, growth automatically stalls. Organizational complacency took over (although no one on the inside saw it this way), and the strategy was “play not to lose” instead of play to win. In other words, no one could even imagine the brand two, five, or ten times bigger because it had not been growing for so long. The organizational mindset was: Don’t make any mistakes managing the brand and preserve our market share and profit. The brand’s owners got used to the brand’s size and were happy with the regular cash flow their company generated, even if it was relatively modest. When I managed one of my first brands, I inherited a situation where the brand had not been growing for fifty to sixty years. To me, a fundamental factor, often underestimated, is the brand’s “mindset.” One of the more fascinating discussions I have is about the preconditions for building successful luxury brands. If customers perceive extreme value in their interactions with a brand, there is almost no way for it not to grow. Many luxury managers, often without knowing, slow down brand development rather than unleashing it, halted by internal beliefs, doubts, policies, or constraints. The managerial attitude towards brand opportunities and the willingness to take decisive steps and make critical changes determines a brand’s potential.
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