From business transformation to consumer change, let’s talk about brand reshaping

Branding is about connecting a brand with a target audience to build awareness, trust, and resonance. There are two types of brand remodeling: one is when the product and business change, and the other is when the consumers change. This article talks about brand remodeling, and I hope it will be helpful to you.

Like brand upgrading, brand reshaping is also driven by two situations: one is the change of products and business, the other is the change of consumers. But the difference is that brand upgrading is to retain the original business and consumer groups, and expand and move upward on this basis; while brand reshaping is to abandon the original business to implement transformation and activate a new consumer group.

As the business and users change, companies must also change their branding to convey the message to consumers that "I have changed". This is brand reshaping.

If brand upgrading is about adding, incorporating more experience, value, and connotation, then brand reshaping is about subtraction, subverting the original brand definition, starting from scratch, and making drastic changes. Therefore, how to make changes, how to make trade-offs and choices between change and non-change have become the main themes of brand reshaping.

In this lecture, we will first briefly discuss the brand reshaping brought about by business transformation, and then explain in detail the brand reshaping brought about by consumer changes.

1. Brand reshaping under business transformation

Changes are inevitable in the process of enterprise development. This is because a single category has an upper limit, a single industry has a cycle, and over-reliance on a certain product or business can easily lead to growth bottlenecks or industry recession, making it difficult to maintain the long-term prosperity of the enterprise. At this time, the enterprise must implement transformation and change. Looking at the great companies in the world, most of them have experienced several major strategic changes and entered multiple industries and unfamiliar fields.

For example, Apple, which just released its Vision Pro head-mounted display, started out as a PC manufacturer, then launched the iPod and entered the music industry, followed by mobile phones, and most recently the film and television content industry. Apple has already started a streaming war with Disney and Netflix. And now Apple has entered the XR industry. In addition, don’t forget that Apple has also been investing in the research and development of smart cars.

When iPod sales were booming, Jobs' strategic question was not how to develop a better iPod and sell more iPods, but what product to replace iPod. Later, Apple successfully created the iPhone, which replaced and succeeded iPod and helped Apple reach a new peak. If Apple had not implemented this business transformation, it would obviously be defeated by today's mobile phone manufacturers.

Changes are happening around us every day. Midea acquired Kuka (one of the world's top four robot companies), Xiaomi announced its plan to build cars, and Facebook became Meta... When a company's strategy and substantive business change, the brand must be reshaped accordingly.

Nokia, which we are all very familiar with, has gone through five transformations since its establishment, namely the papermaking era, the industrial era, the telecommunications era, the mobile phone era, and then back to the telecommunications era. We can see this reform from Nokia's adjustment of its brand LOGO.

Nokia was founded in Nokia, Finland in 1865. Its main business was cutting down local trees to produce wood pulp and cardboard. During this period, Nokia's brand logo was a fish head, which was derived from the salmon in the Nokia River where the factory was located, which was a symbol of the agricultural era.

In the 1870s, Nokia started to sell rubber products, such as tires, and gradually entered the petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical and other industrial fields. In the early 20th century, Nokia added a cable department and began to get involved in the telecommunications industry.

So in 1898, Nokia changed its brand logo to an inverted pentagonal metal nameplate, which is a symbol of the industrial age.

(Nokia second generation brand logo, 1898-1965)

In 1960, Bjorn Westerlund, then president of Nokia, believed that telecommunications would be the future trend of technological development. He established the Nokia Electronics Division and began to study radio transmission issues. This became a watershed in the development of Nokia and laid the foundation for Nokia's development in the telecommunications industry.

So in 1965, when the company celebrated its 100th anniversary, Nokia changed its brand logo again, replacing it with a circle surrounding the five letters NOKIA, symbolizing communication and the earth, which marked Nokia's official entry into the telecommunications era.

Two years later, Nokia Electronics had 460 employees and net sales accounted for 3% of the entire group. Since then, Nokia's share of the Finnish telecommunications market has continued to increase.

(Nokia's three generations of brand logos, 1965-1978)

In 1973, the world's first mobile phone was invented by Motorola, and a new revolution was about to take place. At this time, Nokia also began to focus its corporate strategy on the development of wireless communication technology and equipment.

So in 1978, Nokia modified its brand LOGO again. This LOGO has been used for nearly half a century. Many friends who have used Nokia mobile phones are familiar with it. It marks Nokia's entry into the mobile phone era.

(Nokia's four generations of brand logos, 1978-2023)

In the second year after changing its logo, Nokia began to develop the first generation of wireless communication network standards (1G), and launched the first 1G mobile phone Nokia Senator (another version is called Mobira Senato) in 1982.

In 1991, Nokia released the second-generation wireless communication standard GSM (2G), and mass-produced the world's first GSM mobile phone - Nokia 1011 - the following year.

In 1995, Nokia's mobile phone sales and orders increased dramatically, and the company's profits soared. Since 1996, Nokia has occupied the first place in the mobile phone market share for 14 consecutive years.

The rapid development of the telecommunications sector has led to a dramatic expansion of Nokia's business scope, while other industrial sectors are on the verge of bankruptcy due to too many businesses involved.

So in the mid-1990s, under the leadership of then-President Jorma Ollila, Nokia made the most important strategic decision in its history. It only retained the telecommunications department and split or sold all other traditional industrial businesses such as paper, tires, cables, and home appliances. It even cut off its color TV business, which was ranked second in Europe at the time.

We all know the rest of the story. In 2010, Nokia's mobile phone market share reached 35.0%, which was at its peak. But unfortunately, Nokia missed the wave of smartphones and has been declining ever since.

In September 2013, Nokia sold its mobile phone business and related patents to Microsoft for US$7.17 billion and withdrew from the personal mobile phone business.

The story of the mobile phone brand Nokia has ended. Nokia has returned to the technical research and development, licensing and production of mobile communication equipment, and has begun to lay out 5G technology. Now it has become a B2B brand, focusing on helping all walks of life to achieve interconnection and digitalization.

However, when people mention Nokia, many people still associate it with mobile phones. Nokia's new CEO Pekka Lundmark said: "In people's minds, Nokia is still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is no longer the true image of Nokia." [1]

In order to get rid of this inherent impression, Nokia implemented a brand reshaping in February 2023. As part of the reshaping, Nokia once again changed its brand logo. The classic NOKIA font and the iconic brand color Yale Blue were abandoned, and a new letter logo with some strokes removed appeared. The bold and innovative design broke the tradition.

(Nokia's fifth generation brand LOGO, 2023-)

When a company implements brand reshaping, the most common thing is to adjust the logo. This is because, on the one hand, the change of the logo is the most intuitive and can make people see the change of the brand at a glance.

On the other hand, as the most basic asset of a brand, changing the LOGO is a clear signal sent by the company to its internal and communications departments, demonstrating the company's belief and determination in change and transformation, and allowing people to feel the brand's new image, concept and business scope.

In June 2022, Buick released a new brand LOGO, whose goal was also to implement brand reshaping, showing people Buick's determination to break out of its cocoon and be reborn in the era of electrification and intelligence, and bid farewell to the perception of a traditional fuel brand.

(Buick's original brand LOGO, the main shape from 1980 to 2022, the details have undergone two fine-tuning)

Of course, Buick’s brand reshaping is not as simple as releasing a LOGO. On the day of the press conference, Buick also released a new product design language PURE Design, which comprehensively updated the concept and style of product design, and used a new design aesthetic of purity, refinement, and simplification to attract the interest of a new generation of consumers.

At the same time, Buick also released three new models, including two concept cars and one strategic new product. After that, Buick launched a series of pure electric models. This is Buick's brand reshaping from fuel to the pure electric era.

(Buick pure electric concept SUV Electra-X)

(Buick Wildcat, a pure electric concept car)

With the transformation of the business, enterprises need to redefine the brand definition, brand concept, brand vision, and re-plan product lines and product designs. In addition, brands sometimes need to spread their changes.

Like IBM, it was founded to produce punching machines, and later began to produce mainframes and personal computers. In the 1990s, IBM implemented a strategic transformation from "hardware to software", from producing computer equipment to a company that provides software and information service solutions.

In order to let customers feel IBM's transformation, IBM has created a series of classic communication cases such as "One World Solution", "E-commerce", "Smart Earth", and successfully reshaped its brand. For detailed cases, please see the lecture "B2B Brand Strategy".

Then let us turn our attention to the film industry, which is also an industry that has been completely disrupted with the rapid development of digital imaging.

George Eastman invented film in 18XX, which promoted the transformation of the photography industry and the popularization of photography technology. The Eastman Kodak Company he founded was once the world's largest provider of imaging products and related services, and has long led the development of film. It can be said that Kodak's history is a microcosm of the development of world imaging.

However, with the development of digital photography and digital imaging, Kodak collapsed. In January 2012, Kodak, a company with a history of more than 130 years, declared bankruptcy protection.

In fact, Kodak’s business capabilities are not weak. As early as 1976, Kodak developed digital imaging technology and launched digital cameras in 1991. However, Kodak was satisfied with the huge profits and market monopoly brought by its traditional film business and did not give due attention and investment to digital technology. When Kodak embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation, it was too late.

When Kodak fell, another film giant, Fujifilm, enjoyed a second spring. Fujifilm's success was not only due to its earlier and more resolute implementation of digital transformation than Kodak (Fujifilm's digitization rate reached 60% in 2002, while Kodak's was only 25% during the same period), but more importantly, its expansion into multiple industries.

The key is that Fujifilm does not consider its core business to be film, but the photosensitive materials and technologies behind the film. Photosensitive technology is not only used in film, but also has a wide range of applications in biomedicine, chemicals, printing, film products, electronic imaging and magnetic materials. Therefore, Fujifilm has successfully implemented diversification and entered multiple business areas.

In business model design, "product" and "key business" are two completely different concepts. Products are appearances, and business is the essence. Understanding the business and the core resources and important cooperation behind the business that support its development constitutes the core competitiveness of the enterprise.

A classic example is Fujifilm even launching cosmetics, because oxidation caused by ultraviolet rays is the cause of photo fading, and it is also the culprit of skin aging and inflammation, and the main component of film is collagen, just like skin.

Therefore, Fujifilm applied the collagen knowledge and antioxidant technology accumulated in film research and development to the field of beauty and launched the skin care brand ASTALIFT in 2007.

Currently, document processing accounts for approximately 43% of Fujifilm’s total revenue, healthcare and high-performance materials accounts for 41%, and imaging accounts for only 16%[2]. Fujifilm’s story has become a classic case of corporate transformation and can be called a business legend.

After successfully implementing its business transformation, Fujifilm also began to reshape its brand, transforming the public's perception of "film manufacturer" into an "innovative technology company."

In 2014, on the 80th anniversary of the company's innovation, Fujifilm launched a new corporate proposition "Value from Innovation". In October 2018, it launched a global brand promotion campaign "NEVER STOP" and launched a series of TV commercials in countries and regions such as Japan, the United States, China, Europe, India, and Australia.

In January 2019, Fujifilm also held a brand launch conference in Shanghai to explain its new brand slogan and brand connotation to the outside world, and released the "2018 Fujifilm China Sustainability Report" to publicize its unremitting efforts and value creation in China.

In September 2020, due to the raging epidemic, Fujifilm launched a new wave of global brand promotion activities "NEVER STOP Healthcare 2020" to publicize the company's achievements and development concepts in the health field, and express that Fujifilm has now become a comprehensive healthcare company covering three major areas including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, emphasizing that medical care is the top priority of the company's development.

This series of promotional activities is aimed at shaping Fujifilm's new brand image, showcasing its new technologies, new values, and new ideas for contributing to society and future life, in order to win public recognition and favor.

Among the companies that implemented business transformation mentioned above, the motivation for transformation was mainly caused by technological changes, and in the process of transformation, it spanned both toB and toC fields, such as telecommunications, medical care, and information technology.

In the B2B industry, brand building usually does not rely on large-scale advertising and promotion. Therefore, we can see that the reshaping of these brands is mainly to redefine the basic components of the brand, such as the logo, proposition, brand mission and vision, brand definition, business combing, etc. Then, through certain brand strategy releases, the brand is renewed in the minds of customers, partners, and the public.

However, in the B2C field, the main challenge facing consumer product companies is not only the change in technology and categories, but also the change in consumer concepts and consumer groups. In this case, brand reshaping requires more efforts at the brand level.

2. Brand Reshaping under Consumption Change

When products and businesses change, brands must change accordingly. However, when products and main businesses remain unchanged, brands must also change. This is because as generations of consumers change, consumption concepts change, social values ​​and contemporary aesthetics change. If a brand does not innovate its image, appeal, and values, and does not keep up with the changes of the times, it will be ruthlessly abandoned by consumers.

1. Brand change: from external to internal

In order to win the hearts of the new generation of consumers, brand reshaping must first let these consumers see the changes in the brand and convey to them the message that "I have changed and am different from before." So, what changes are obvious?

The first thing is naturally the visual parts such as LOGO, VI, product design and packaging, spokesperson, etc., to create a refreshing brand image visually.

For example, Uniqlo, which I mentioned in "Brand 30 Lectures 2 | Brand Identity", was once regarded as a cheap product with a poor image in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, and consumers were reluctant to buy it.

Uniqlo's approach to reshaping its brand was to find the well-known Japanese art director Kashiwa Sato to redesign the entire brand, including the brand logo, store image, product display, website, advertising, etc., and to transform every point where consumers come into contact with the brand. Since then, Uniqlo has transformed itself into a symbol of fast fashion and has been revitalized.

Another example is the watch brand TIMEX. It was founded in Connecticut, USA in 1854. It was once the best-selling watch brand in the United States and the only mobile phone brand in the world with sales exceeding 1 billion. According to statistics, one in every three Americans has worn TIMEX, so it is regarded as the brand that best represents the United States, surpassing Nike and Coca-Cola.

Due to its low price and national attributes, Timex is very popular among celebrities and politicians. Former US presidents such as Clinton, George Bush, and Obama have all worn its watches to show their people-friendly image. Therefore, Timex is also known as "TIMEX, which is always chosen by presidents." During the US presidential election, Timex also launched an advertising copy "No matter who is elected, TIMEX is the winner."

Despite such a glorious history and achievements, Timex inevitably declined with the changes in the concepts of the times and fashion aesthetics. Even Timex's chief designer Galli personally admitted that Timex was no longer cool.

In recent years, Timex has regained popularity and become the darling of the fashion circle again, thanks to an unintentional move by Timex's Japanese branch.

During World War I, the US government realized the importance of watches on the battlefield. The pocket watches that were previously used were difficult to read and not portable enough, so they commissioned Timex to make watches.

Timex used its own pocket watch as a prototype, added a buckle to it and used a cotton strap to secure it. In 1917, it launched the world's earliest military watch, the famous Midget in Timex's history.

A hundred years later, Timex Japan branch excavated the brand history and reproduced this epoch-making watch, which was released as a limited edition model in Japan. The tough and cool military style design set off the Japanese fashion circle.

Timex seems to have found the code for popularity and started to collaborate with many Japanese fashion brands to create joint products, such as Have a Good Time, CONVERSE TOKYO, Beams, etc. Timex's popularity in Japan has skyrocketed, and it has also opened its first flagship store in Japan.

Since then, cross-border cooperation with trendy brands has become a routine operation of Timex's brand marketing. The military style and trendy brand cross-border marketing saved Timex, and its traditional and old-fashioned image was changed. The new Timex was sought after by fashion trendsetters and became popular again around the world.

Changes in visual style and image are most easily captured by consumers. Behind the image style, we need to rethink who the brand is and redefine the brand's definition, concept, and connotation. These brand-level combings point the way for image reshaping.

Like Olay mentioned in the previous lecture, Olay redefined itself as an "anti-aging skin care brand" and based on this definition, reorganized its product line and improved its counter image.

There is also the national time-honored brand Pechoin, which was once popular all over the country, but was later abandoned by consumers and almost disappeared. In 2004, Pechoin began to implement brand reshaping, re-established the brand route of "herbal skin care", and put forward the brand concept of "Chinese legend, oriental beauty". Under the guidance of this concept, Pechoin redesigned its products and created a series of highly topical national trend marketing events, which regained the love of consumers.

Domestic cosmetics, which were once considered "cheap" and "low-quality" in people's minds, have once again become "the pride of domestic products" and "fashionable boutiques", and consumers' perceptions have changed. As a result, Pechoin's sales have increased from 1.8 billion yuan in 2012 to 17.7 billion yuan in 2017, making it the brand with the highest market share among domestic skincare brands.

Third, in addition to redefining "who the brand is", brand reshaping also requires rethinking the question of "who the consumer is", re-establishing the brand's core consumer group, and changing the image of typical consumers. Focusing on this group of new consumers, we should explore new brand value propositions, attitudes and personalities and establish communication with them.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple. In order to save the company from bankruptcy, he first did two things: first, he launched a massive brand campaign "Think different"; second, he streamlined the product line and launched the iMac G3 desktop computer with a translucent colored shell.

These measures are essentially about re-targeting Apple's core consumer group, targeting professionals, artists and fashion-conscious college students, shaping the image of Apple users into a group of people with different ideas and a desire to change the world, and winning their hearts with unique brand attitudes and cool and fashionable product designs.

The so-called brand is the conscious performance of consumers' ideal self-image. They buy a brand because it can help them become what they want to be. This is the meaning of the brand to consumers. To achieve this kind of docking, the key lies in exploring the brand prototype.

The lecture "Brand Person" discussed this concept in detail and gave many examples of brands. When Levi's and Johnnie Walker reshaped their brands or renewed their brands, they actually transformed the brand prototype. Under the guidance of the new prototype, they put forward a new value proposition and created a new personality image to communicate with consumers.

The archetype represents the deepest desires and resonances of consumers. It determines a brand’s consumer image, what kind of relationship the brand wants to establish with consumers, and provides a basic setting for the brand to shape its brand image and personality.

Even the brand's mission, vision and values ​​can be based on the brand archetype. The archetype is like a beacon for the brand, guiding the brand in the right direction.

Whether it is refreshing the brand's visual style and image, or redefining "who is the brand" and "who are the consumers", brand reshaping is actually to help the brand create a brand-new brand world . The brand world represents a brand's understanding of the entire consumer world, and represents the way the brand views itself, its users, and social and cultural concepts.

It is represented by visual image, and the inner part is the three views of the brand, including how the brand views its own product function benefits and brand value, how it views the life view of consumers' personality attitudes and lifestyles, and how it views the cultural world and consumption concepts. The reshaping of the brand is an all-round transformation and renewal from the outside to the inside, from the external image to the internal concept.

P&G also owns a men's shower gel brand, Old Spice.

It was born in 1938 and has a history of more than 80 years. Like many classic old brands mentioned above, after many years of glory, OSPAI had already shown signs of decline at the end of the 20th century and began to lose its position on the shelves of various markets around the world.

In particular, P&G's old rival Unilever launched the men's body spray and shower gel brand AXE in 2002, which dealt a fatal blow to Oushepai.

The branding of Lingshi is very youthful, with sexual appeal as its main selling point, promising consumers that spraying Lingshi can gain favor from the opposite sex and get dating opportunities.

The advertising style of Axle is direct, bold and flamboyant, especially the series of advertisements about angels descending to earth, which caused a sensation (the creative concept is that after spraying Axle, even angels in heaven are attracted to come down and are willing to become mortals). As a result, Axle is sought after by young people.

In comparison, Oshipai gives people the impression of being old-fashioned and outdated, with a bland and ordinary brand proposition, like a brand used by our parents and grandfathers.

In 2010, OSP hired the well-known advertising agency W+K to reshape the brand, hoping to restore the former glory of OSP. W+K was determined to create a brand new world for the brand that only belongs to real men.

It proposed a new brand proposition "Smell Like A Man, Man", telling consumers how a tough man should speak and act. Later, "SLAMM" even became a social movement popular across the United States.

Oshpa is using this to counter Lynx and Unilever's new brand "Dove for Men" launched in 2012. It warns consumers that real men should not use shower gels with feminine scents, as those products will only make you smell like a wild flower!

In terms of brand identity and product packaging, W+K explored and enhanced classic elements from Oshipak’s early brand history, such as the clipper logo, red and beige packaging, and the brand’s iconic whistle, which made Oshipak stand out from the sea of ​​silver and black men’s skincare brands[3].

In terms of product line planning, Oshipai has redesigned three product series and adopted three animals with strong masculine styles as their logos, representing different fragrances and styles, including bear claw wood fragrance (symbolizing strength), wolf thorn ocean fragrance (symbolizing courage) and falcon wilderness grass fragrance (symbolizing wisdom).

In terms of advertising, Oshipai invited Isaiah Mustafa to be its spokesperson. Mustafa was a former American football player and later switched to become an actor.

In the advertisement "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like", Mustafa is riding a horse shirtless with strong pectoral muscles and six-pack abs, holding Osprey and recommending it to the audience. After experiencing various adventures, he finally falls into a waterfall.

The ad was aired around the Super Bowl in 2010, which is known as the "American Spring Festival Gala". Its creative style, which was wild and funny, caused a sensation and was considered one of the greatest Super Bowl ads ever (although it was not broadcast during the Super Bowl). Mustafa also became an overnight sensation with his hormonal look in the ad, becoming one of the most iconic characters in advertising history.

As a result, the OSP brand became an Internet celebrity and a hot topic among American brands. Each of its advertisements triggered a wave of spoofs on the Internet. OSP also took the opportunity to launch nearly 200 viral videos starring Mustafa, and the video click rate exceeded that of Obama's victory speech video that year.

That 2010 ad and the "Smell come to Manhood" ad launched in 2016 also won the Golden Lion Award at the Cannes Lions Creative Festival that year.

After this brand reshaping, OSPEC regained the top spot in men’s body wash sales in the United States, with a market share of 26.9% (Nielsen 2016 U.S. market data)[4].

In 2020, in order to celebrate the victory of this ten-year brand campaign, Oushep restarted the original advertising campaign and continued to hire Mustafa to create new advertisements for release, while the core brand concept remains the same.

2. Find unchanging brand genes and key assets

In brand reshaping, in addition to consciously transforming the brand vision, image, concept, connotation, and prototype to create a new brand world, special attention should be paid to the fact that brand reshaping does not mean simply abandoning the past and starting over from scratch.

Many classic old brands were once glorious, but with the rise of a new generation of consumers, they have disappeared from their sight. This does not mean that the brand lacks charm and value, and the various shining points of the brand in the past are not attractive to young people. The truth may be that young people do not understand your brand and know nothing about it.

At this time, if the company can trace back and sort out those high-quality brand assets and promote them again, such as re-activating classic products and design concepts, reaffirming the original intention and story of the brand's early days, and re-interpreting the classic advertising ideas and promotion methods in the brand's history, then it can win back consumers and regain vitality.

If, on the contrary, the brand abandons all its past classic brand elements in order to reshape itself, it will instead further aggravate the erosion of brand value, the blurring of brand existence, and the loss of brand assets, thereby exacerbating the brand crisis and accelerating brand decline.

As mentioned above, Oshipai and Timex have rediscovered and reinterpreted classic elements from their brand history. Reebok, mentioned in the lecture “Social Brands”, also reshaped its brand by looking back at the glorious moments of its early days and then redefining the brand. The same is true for KFC, another brand mentioned in “Brand 30 Lectures 13 | Brand Personality”.

Since the new century, KFC's sales have continued to decline for 10 years. The reason is that the rise of a new generation of consumers and the prevalence of healthy eating concepts have brought about major changes in the global fast food market.

KFC tried to cater to the trend and continuously launched healthy food, but this did not succeed in attracting a new generation of young people. Instead, it led to the weakening of its classic products, fried chicken and family buckets, and the brand was no longer distinct and prominent in the minds of consumers.

On the other hand, the unique assets of the KFC brand have also been weakened. For any American who grew up after the 1950s, Colonel Sanders is a very familiar and close figure. His life story and entrepreneurial spirit of "going all out and doing the best" have inspired a whole generation.

However, the Colonel's presence has disappeared with the changing times, and his appeal to consumers has lost its appeal. According to a survey, most American young people aged 18-25 do not know who Colonel Sanders is, and 61% of the respondents said they do not know who the white-bearded old man on the KFC logo is.

Therefore, one of the key points of KFC's brand reshaping is to re-activate the Colonel's image, launch a series of advertising videos to "revive" the Colonel, and retell the story behind the KFC logo to young people; and find different celebrities to play the Colonel to stir up trouble and initiate event marketing. KFC used the new Colonel's image to play with young people, and this approach saved KFC.

At the same time, KFC also launched a new sixth-generation brand LOGO, fully returning to the classic visual style of the 1950s-1990s. The new version of the LOGO removed the Colonel's iconic red apron and replaced it with a black and white design. The overall style is more fashionable and simple, and KFC also completely changed the product packaging design.

In the lecture "Brand Upgrade", it is mentioned that with the expansion and diversification of corporate business, brand building often goes through a "de-product" stage, where the brand breaks away from the restrictions of a certain category and no longer represents a specific product, but only represents an abstract concept and value proposition.

However, if a brand is always separated from specific businesses and products, it can easily lead to brand hollowing out. The brand becomes abstract and vague in the minds of consumers, thus losing its foundation in the minds of consumers.

For example, Vancl, an internet clothing brand that was once popular on the Internet, tried to transform itself into an e-commerce platform like Taobao and JD.com during its business expansion, and launched a large number of Vancl-branded kitchen knives, Vancl-branded mops and other department store products. In the process, Vancl no longer represented clothing, the personality and vitality of young people in the minds of consumers, and was subsequently abandoned by consumers.

Therefore, brands need to do one more thing in the process of growth and expansion, that is, "returning products". Refocus on the most classic products at the beginning of the brand's establishment, explore the concepts and values ​​behind the products, and re-establish connections with consumers. In a sense, this is to find the roots of the brand and consolidate brand assets.

For example, LV (Louis Vuitton) was founded in Paris in 1854, initially making luggage for the French royal family. LV started from there and has now grown into a huge luxury empire, with products spanning many categories including luggage, leather goods, jewelry, watches, high-end ready-to-wear, shoes, perfumes, accessories, etc.

As the product line continues to expand, LV's core brand value is also being diluted. In the minds of consumers, LV is no different from other luxury brands, and the brand lacks differentiation and distinctive features. Especially in the emerging Asian market and young consumer groups, they don't know LV.

Antoine Arnault, corporate image director of LVMH Group, once commented: "We have only been in Asia for more than 20 years. Young people regard us as a fashion brand but do not know our history."

So in 2007, LV launched a global marketing campaign aimed at building the brand's "core value", which has been carried out for many years, inviting different big-name stars to perform every year.

The core value that LV found is "travel".

First of all, this is because suitcases are the product that best represents LV and is the most iconic product of the brand, and are the representative item.

Secondly, "travel" represents the historical heritage and noble lineage of the LV brand. At the age of 14, Louis Vuitton, the founder of LV, set out from Switzerland alone and walked 250 kilometers to Paris to make a living. He started as an apprentice of luggage makers and gradually became the luggage binder and leather craftsman of Queen Eugenie of France, which led to the establishment of today's LV empire.

Finally, "travel" conveys a unique aesthetic experience and spiritual symbol to consumers. Carrying an LV suitcase, embarking on a journey of life, discovering oneself and understanding life during the journey, this value communication has won the recognition of consumers.

This is LV's return product. LV has returned to the classic item of travel luggage from its huge product matrix, through which it traces back the brand history and founding story, extracts and amplifies the brand's genes, and establishes a connection with consumers' life scenes, forming a spiritual communication. LV has thus built the brand's unique value and differentiated itself from competing products.

The discontinuation and return of a brand is actually to understand clearly which assets are changeable, which assets need to be discarded, and which assets need to be retained and developed in the process of brand development. The essence of brand reshaping is hidden between the change and the invariance of the brand.

3. The essence of brand remodeling

Brand reshaping is often caused by changes in consumer generations. Therefore, when consumers change, we must think clearly about what the new consumers pay attention to and pursue, which determines the direction of brand reshaping.

In many cases, the reason why a brand becomes outdated is not because its products and technologies are outdated, but because the brand no longer meets the consumer's concepts and cognition. Brand reshaping should shift from the brand itself to the consumer, and change the consumer's concept and standards of the brand, so as to regain vitality for the brand.

For example, Wusu Beer, this brand was born in the 1980s and was originally a small local factory in Xinjiang. In the early 21st century, Wusu Beer had fallen into the quagmire of years of losses.

The fundamental reason is that Wusu does not conform to the new consumption trend. Due to the continuous increase in national health awareness, the entire alcohol market has shown a trend of decreasing volume and decreasing degree over the years. It reflects that the beer market is that the mainstream products of beer have gone from 680ml and 600ml "big green sticks" in the past, and now they have fallen to exquisite bottles with specifications of only 330ml and 300ml. The original wort concentration of beer has dropped to about 8-9 degrees and the alcohol content has dropped to about 2.5 degrees, and light beer has become the mainstream.

As for Wusu, it still retains its product characteristics of high alcohol content (alcohol content ≥4%vol, wort concentration ≥11°P) and large capacity (620ml/bottle). And the most fatal point is that its brewing process is average, with more impurities in the wine body, so it is very strong, and drinking too much is easy to get drunk, and it is slow to sober up.

Therefore, Wusu's fate was originally destined. However, in recent years, this lifeless and peaceful small brand of fourth- and fifth-tier cities has suddenly turned into a popular chicken in the beer market, selling more than 1 billion bottles a year, and has become a real national beer brand after Xuehua, Qingdao, Budweiser and Yanjing.

So what did Wusu do right?

Friends who often drink beer should know that there is a popular saying in recent years called " Deadly Dawusu ".

Since Wusu was acquired by Carlsberg Group in 2004 and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carlsberg in 2015, he has made a lot of marketing moves, especially on short video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili.

The original product characteristics of the product that was originally full of alcohol and easy to get drunk, after the interpretation of the content of "Deadly Wusu", it has transformed into a symbol of fighting for wine and being able to drink, and has a cognitive label of hardcore, generous, grassland style, and masculinity, and disadvantages have become advantages.

Another very interesting point is that the letter "WUSU" in the brand LOGO of Wusu was pronounced as "NSNM" by netizens, meaning "kill you". These memes and interesting content helped Wusu break the circle and successfully attracted a large number of bloggers to shoot videos for challenges, as well as the attempts and pursuits of many consumers.

Since then, Wusu invited Zhang Weili, the first UFC world champion in Asia and the best female MMA player in 2022, as the spokesperson, and launched a "hard core based on strength" demands and advertising film to carry out the hard core culture to the end. Wusu has thus rejuvenated for a second spring.

From the reshaping of the Wusu brand, we can see that Wusu has not made any changes to the product, and has not changed the process, quality and packaging design. What it really changes is the consumer concept. Consumers' views on Wusu have changed, and the standards for consuming beer have changed. This is the password for Wusu to become popular.

For example, the Quanlian Supermarket in Taiwan, the core value of this brand is money saving and cost-effectiveness. It is a powerful magic weapon for Quanlian to stand for many years. Unfortunately, the new generation of consumers do not pay for it. They think that Quanlian is too cheap and low-end, and it is embarrassing to carry Quanlian’s shopping bags in their hands.

In order to save the young people who are constantly losing, Quanlian has vigorously promoted the "Quanlian Economic Aesthetics" since 2015. Quanlian Economic Aesthetics is a consumption concept, which turns taking your own money seriously into a personal attitude and a way of life. It touches the hearts of young people with copywriting such as "Beautiful is capital, and spending money beautifully is a skill" and "I don't know how to spend a lot of money, but I am really good at spending money".

Through the case of Quanlian, you will also find that Quanlian itself has not changed anything. It has not upgraded its store image, replaced it with more high-end and exquisite shopping bags, adjusted its product structure, and sold more expensive and higher-end products. Its advertising does not even promote how Quanlian is, but tells young people how to treat money and embrace what kind of consumption concepts. But that's it, Quanlian has regained its vitality.

What exactly is brand reshaping? In fact, it is a reshaping of consumer perception. If you change consumption standards and consumption concepts, the brand will change accordingly.

As mentioned earlier, brand reshaping is to help the brand shape a brand new brand world, reshape the brand's three views, and change and guide consumer concepts. This is actually to change how the brand views social and cultural worldview. If the way you look at the world changes, the whole world will change with you.

The only thing that remains unchanged in this world is change. There is no unchanging brand. Only brands that are constantly evolving. Brands that are stubborn and refuse to change will only be abandoned by consumers and eliminated by the market. Only change can we cope with all changes.

Audi once won the luxury car sales champion for 19 consecutive years in the Chinese automobile market with its brand status as an "official car" and its stable and atmospheric brand image. However, with the rise of young consumer groups and the privateization of luxury car consumption, especially since the electric revolution, Audi has begun to decline and urgently need to reshape its brand.

To this end, Audi launched many marketing actions, using a younger communication language for brand communication. For example, in 2016, it launched the new Audi A4L with the theme of "creating change", and the theme of appeal was "enjoy, feeling free and unrestrained"; at the end of that year, it launched a large-scale brand communication campaign of "every first time igniting change";

In 2020, the personalized coupe SUV Audi Q3 will be launched, and the "sensory awakening" will be vigorously spread; in 2021, Wang Yibo was invited to endorse the speech, promoting the youthful spirit of "I will give it a try in the future", and the Audi RS' "natural igniting" personality attitude;

For example, not long ago (July 2023), Audi reached a cooperation with SAIC Zhiji platform to accelerate the development of its own electric vehicle models, etc.

In 2016, Audi participated in the Beijing Auto Show, and the theme of the exhibition was " The times do not wait for people, we do not wait for the times ". This copy resonates with me and still remembers it deeply.

Many brands are glorious and then declined because they did not keep up with the development of the times and were eventually abandoned by the times. The times will not stay for any brand. Only by always paying attention to and understanding the social development trends and changes in consumer concepts can we achieve the eternal success of the brand in order to develop products and build brands.

An era without brands, only the brand of the era.

Notes on this article

[1] "Nokia Nokia enables new LOGO and opens a new page of Nokia's history", source: Logo Information Agency, 2023.02.27, original address: https://www.logonews.cn/nokia-new-logo.html

[2] 〈Zhuoce Original: Fuji Film - R&D and Innovation Promote Strategic Transformation》, Source:Zhuoce Consulting, 2021-05-27, Original address: https://www.sohu.com/a/468885662_121127986

[3] Greg Criedken Mingqi, "Yumb Marketing Law", CITIC Publishing House, July 2022, 1st edition;

[4] "Old Spice, the most personalized American brand under Procter & Gamble, is located in China", source: PR Newswire, 2018-03-20, original address: https://www.prnasia.com/story/205103-1.shtml

Author: Hushou, WeChat official account: "Hushou"