Brand Retirement

I know the first thought that may run through the readers mind is about the slew of products out there for retirement and financial planning? The answer is NO.

I am trying to figure if brands have a life cycle? If they do when is it a time to retire them and along the way extract they equity or even pass it on to the next one in line?

The only real analytical retirement I have noticed is for equipment like cars and buildings. The math measures the return on investment versus the cost of upkeep to justify their existence? Humans retire because of nature induced frailty and their desire to enjoy the investment in life. Brands are obviously not that smart so the idea of enjoyment does not exist! Can brands be compared to non living things like equipment and buildings?

Much like equipment and buildings brands need investments. An investment in the visual element of the brand to connect with the consumer an investment in the emotion and the message that is culturally and time appropriate an investment in the association the brand makes through celebrities, ingredients and other brands. Obviously there is an opportunity to measure the relevant analytics to decide on the right time to retire the brand?

The time it takes to build the trust into a brand rarely ever lends itself to retiring a brand no matter how much it costs to revive the brand or even just steer it in a new younger life stage? As for me, frailty apart I think when I can afford to buy a car cash down at the price of my first house without feeling the pinch I will be ready to retire and enjoy!

Happy “Not being stupid” month!

It is amazing how we celebrate everything from “Bosses Day”, “Administrative Assistants Day”, “Mothers Day”, “Fathers Day”, “Black history month”, “Asian history month”, “Breast Cancer month” and on and on…

I remember years ago at one of my previous employers we celebrated “Consumer is Boss Day!” this was the day when the consumer rejected NEW Coke for the taste of classic coke. A very interesting concept for a company in the consumer products business but strangely we never celebrate our intelligence?

How about “Not being stupid” Month?

This is not a joke, people just fail to see obvious things! People are averse to learning new concepts, processes, tools. Wouldn’t it be great if for a month we gave up our apprehensions, our prejudices and recognized “NOT stupid” behavior for once?

Years ago I remember going through training on diversity and if memory serves me right it was called “Micro-inequities” the most powerful concept was the feedback component the training introduced. Every time anyone spotted an inequity, the individual was expected to highlight it “that’s a micro-inequity…”. It was immediate, it was behavior changing, it was direct. I don’t know if we really experienced any real change in diversity but the concept was very powerful, one that appealed to my senses.

How about we do the same with stupidity or inequity for an entire month? Imagine how much change we could enable!

Bruises are NO ALWAYS Chevrons

We talks about our progress, we talk about our achievements, and rarely do we mention our failures? Success can be happenstance and often results in arrogance but failure creates humility and the need to learn what went wrong, where it went wrong, how to avoid the mistakes in the future and lastly what to monitor and what else to closely control.

I don’t want to confuse failures as the motive to grow but the experience and the learning from the experiences as the driver! Obviously those bruises that did not result in any learning are just as good as those arrogant successes.

Failure projects another interesting facet the measure of resilience. A brittle leader is not a leader at all! The quintessential ability of a leader is his or her actions to resurrect from the ashes like a phoenix; nothing tests that better than failure. Leaders are dealers in hope so not just do they have to inspire their team but gather support for their ideas and intentions.