Reinventing Tired Brands, A Simple Story.

Just a reminder ... adding a touch color and freshness can give a tired brand new life.
Just a reminder … adding a touch color and freshness can give a tired brand new life and a new ability to compete.

We once knew a woman who slept in her make-up.

Mascara, lipstick, the whole lot.

In the morning it left the pillowcase a disaster but it was changed every day.

So there was always the opportunity to make a mess on a fresh basis.

Why was this?

She lived in mortal fear of meeting people in the middle of the night due to some sort of unforeseen problem.

A fire, a burglar, sleepwalking that would send her strolling out the front door … she feared being seen without make-up.

It happened to her mother.

During the war an air raid warden in the East End of London awakened the family in the middle of the night.

Bombs were not dropping.

But warning sirens wailed on.

Wardens were sent out to ensure everyone was in the shelters.

So there was an urgent, hard-knuckled ‘rap-rap-raping’ on the door.

On seeing her mother in night attire with no lipstick, dark circles under her eyes and sallow skin, the warden gave a startled gasp. He was shaken.

There wasn’t a skerrick of make-up on her while her hair was a rat’s nest of tangles.

More frightened by this than by the thought of the Luftwaffe overhead, the warden backed away.

Years later her mother was still remorseful she had terrified the man.

She felt she hadn’t done her part for the war effort. She was stung by it.

For this reason and maybe a bit of vanity, her daughter took to wearing a touch of lipstick to bed.

As she got older she used more and more.

Then it escalated in a major way to full make-up.

Decades later she lived the part of a beautifully turned out woman from bedtime to 8AM, even when age challenged her.

She felt she reinvented herself continually.

A good thought for marketers.

If you’re owned by a need to do better, you’ll know it’s a smart move to continually present your brand anew.

You’ll be aware that being determinedly fresh in your thinking is the way to go.

After all, isn’t that how to capture audience attention and lengthen attention spans?

As they say, engaging people is fatal to being ignored.

More to that, it can resuscitate a brand that’s on a downward trajectory — even if it’s a long decline.

Old Spice managed a comeback with Isaiah Mustafa as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.

Lego, Burberry and Carhartt are on the rebound, as well.

Even the British Royal family reinvented itself.

How about you?

Are you continually planning strategies and messaging to make your brand fresh and appealing?

Are you going beyond what’s acceptable to what’s exceptional?

Are you working to create responses in people?

If  not, you might want to consider this.

That’s a bit like getting caught in the middle of the night without your lipstick on.

Share with us. How do you go from success to unbroken success? How do you keep your brand fresh and appealing? Leave your comment in the box below. Thanks, Steve Ulin

 

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