5 Steps To Creating A New Lease On Life For A Struggling Brand

Isn’t this just for humans?

We often hear about a “new lease on life” when a person recovers from a serious illness or an especially challenging circumstance. The phrase can also be applied to someone discovering a new passion or starting a new career at just the right time during life’s ups and downs. These pivotal moments provide a major boost to one’s self esteem, energy, and outlook and help ensure successful days ahead.

Sometimes brands need a new lease on life, too.

Think about that tired brand that is still hanging on but could use a new identity or a renewed purpose. You know the one. What about the beloved brand from your youth that seems to be inching ever closer to extinction because it hasn’t kept up with the times? Then there are brands that make mistakes along the way and lose market share due to their missteps. Sadly, these examples can be found at every turn. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here’s an example from a few decades ago. Sam Goody. My 18-year-old nephew is into “vinyls” (we used to call them records or albums). This has me thinking about record stores that were popular back in the day. Sam Goody is one such store. It was highly successful. In the U.S., almost every mall had one. Maybe you shopped there too! When we all moved on to digital music, the company didn’t survive. The chain was sold a couple of times and eventually went bankrupt. Why? Put simply, the market changed, they should have innovated, but they didn’t. They needed a new lease on life.

5 Steps To Creating A New Lease On Life For Your Brand

Recognize the need

Often the brand custodians are the last to realize their beloved brand needs a shot in the arm. Seeing reality is the first step.

Accept the challenge

Acknowledge the time has come and let that invigorate you. There are always challenger brands entering the market. They’re typically “fresher” and “nimbler” than legacy brands. They may be focused solely on a new market, or maybe they’re just more youthful and energetic. For the manager of a legacy brand, this is the question: do you have what it takes to evolve and remain relevant? I hope you do and will keep going!

Invest in the future

This is where the fun begins. It’s reinvention time! The possibilities could be almost endless. You want to stay true to who you are as a brand, but you also need to modernize. Spend the time and money needed to understand the current competitive landscape, identify unmet needs, and ideate to meet those needs. Work on your product or service offer, your positioning, your brand voice, your logo, your package design. All of it. To remain relevant and poised for growth, the brand has to meet the needs and expectations of the current market.

Move quickly but be patient

Time isn’t endless. For an aging brand, time is often of the essence. You need to do your research, make your plans, update your designs, etc., and implement these changes fairly quickly. However, results will take some time, so have patience and resilience. Keep nurturing and investing.

Enjoy your success

With all the right steps and investments having been taken, the refreshed brand now has a fighting chance to survive as you continue to cultivate it with good oversight, advertising, and continuous support.

So, what about Sam Goody?

What could they have done? Without knowing the brand and its story intimately, here are some thoughts.

Recognize the need. Someone should have seen the shift to digital as one that would hurt brick-and-mortar music retailers. (And to be fair, someone probably did realize this.)
Accept the challenge. Rather than selling to another retailer that was also potentially doomed, could they have taken on the challenge of reinvention themselves?
Invest in the future. Should they have gathered company leaders, front-line managers, and workers to start the reimagining process? Yes. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. It was time, though, to acknowledge the problem and start working on it. Perhaps there was money in the bank, money from the sale, or outside investors who could have helped fund formal ideation sessions, concept research, and updates to all the brand elements that were needed. Here is where they could have become an online retailer, a digital device manufacturer, a streaming service, or all of the above.
Move quickly but be patient. Much of this work was needed in the early 2000s. Had they identified the need for digital distribution mechanisms and devices, it would have taken time to achieve success, but success was likely possible.
Enjoy your success. Better planning, funding, and action may have made this achievable.

Sam Goody needed a new lease on life. Maybe your brand does too. We love working with brands that need refreshing. Please reach out if we can help give your brand what it needs to thrive.

Author

Felicia Rogers

Corporate Executive Vice President

Felicia Rogers is a dynamic insights consultant who leverages decades of business and consumer research experience. She is passionate about brand strategy and improving brand health, new product development, and driving positive customer experiences. During her career, she has consulted with companies across an array of categories to tackle many important strategic issues.

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