This week we take you to the Southern part of USA to look at how a brand like Ford can take advantage of the relationship that trends like the hip-hop infused Slab Culture has with its brand.
Host: Ghani Kunto
Guest: Steve Bayley
The problem with success is that it’s only replicable when all independent variables remain the same. Increasing your budget on the same strategy that worked before will only exacerbate the problem. The strategy that got you there won’t keep you there.
Take Pepsi’s example. The company’s success with the classic Pepsi Generation campaign kept driving it down similar paths. It would use more up-to-date celebrities, use different advertising channels to capture eyeballs, and throw more money at it, but the basic premise remained the same. The result?
PepsiCo announced it would spend $1.2 billion over three years to reinvigorate its beverage brands via a complete packaging, merchandising and marketing overhaul. But with 2011 marking the third year since that announcement, news that the Pepsi brand slid to third place surely came as a psychological blow to employees.
In a painfully comedic twist, when a tweaked version of the old strategy doesn’t work, “branding experts” would proclaim that it’s time to go back to the basics.
The whole reason you modified the old strategy was because you know it won’t work, and now you’re saying you want to go back to it?
Please.
This lost of market share is a wake up call. Don’t go back to sleep hoping to dream of the good ‘ol days.
