When Is It Time To Revitalise A Brand With A Clean Slate?

A key point that a branding agency will often instil in clients is the value of history. Many long-standing companies have fascinating, meaningful pasts that are not being utilised to their fullest extent in marketing campaigns outside of perhaps a date of establishment.

Whilst for some it can feel gauche to shout about one’s achievements and legacy, having a legacy to shout about will often provide companies with an edge in the market sector, proving not only experience but also a history of evolution, adaptation and consumer satisfaction.

However, it would be remiss of anyone working in marketing or branding to not address the fact that an established brand can sometimes be a double-edged sword; whilst being known in customers’ minds is vital to the success of a company, it can also lead to certain preconceived expectations about what a brand has to offer.

The most extreme example of this was the rather infamous attempt by Colgate to make ready meals that failed in part because potential customers were unsure whether the chicken and crabmeat Kitchen Entrees would taste of toothpaste.

Sometimes, however difficult it can be at times, companies need to accept that fortune favours the bold, and a brand that is struggling with its identity might need to take a whole new approach.

Here is an example of a company forced into a situation where they had to largely start again with their brand.

Crowded Sector

Market saturation is often a cyclical part of the electronic entertainment industry, with Atari, Coleco and Magnavox being pushed out by Sega, Nintendo and NEC, who were eventually pushed out by Sony and Microsoft.

By the mid-2000s, a new generation of products was being launched and Nintendo’s strong family-friendly image had increasingly become a liability that was starting to hurt their bottom line.

They were drawn into a choice; keep pushing the same technological limits of their competitors or opt for a different approach aimed at a very different audience.

Inspired by the company development philosophy of “lateral thinking with withered technology”, Nintendo created products aimed at a much wider audience of people who never realised they might be interested in video games.

The DS was explicitly not marketed using Nintendo’s existing and highly successful “Game Boy” brand, opting for a more minimalist design language and gaming experience that used a touchscreen and stylus rather than buttons.

The Wii was even more successful in this regard, with the “Wii Remote” game controller being designed to be waved about.

It became very popular not only with a younger audience that Nintendo openly embraced but with an older audience demographic that may have never played a video game in their life.

Games such as Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, Wii Sports and Wii Fit became very popular in a market sector many analysts believed would never be interested in.

After falling into the same trap again with the Wii U, a considerable failure blamed largely on somewhat confusing marketing, Nintendo successfully revived itself again by treating the Switch as another clean slate that retains the core values of the business.