How do brands survive the test of time?
Check out these three takeaways from brand evolutions
that have managed to keep companies
at the top of their industries.
Brands have made a powerful impact on society for centuries. But with rapid shifts in consumer preferences and overwhelming product noise constantly bombarding the marketplace,it’s essential to maintain a progressive brand evolution strategy that embraces marketplace evolution.
Evolving Brand
Strategy
Brand evolution strategies are becoming increasingly more complex, constantly pivoting to maintain relevance with the changing expectations of consumers. Brand strategy once used to be rigid, without a set strategy for connecting with users across channels or devices. If brands hope to survive, their strategies must now be fluid, prioritizing personalized, interactive user experience designs that appeal to consumer lifestyles and values.
More specifically, today’s consumer aligns themselves with brands that:
- Feel personalized.
- Enhance their lifestyles.
- Get interactive.
While some brands have been left behind in the rapid changes brought on by a shifting marketplace, others are setting a precedent for what it takes to stay relevant.
3 Profound Lessons in
Brand Evolution
Here are three critical lessons we can learn from brand evolutions that have demonstrated the power of embracing ever-changing consumer needs.
1. Make experiences feel personal.
Few companies have proven to be as fluid as Amazon. With it’s customer-centric approach to advancing its edge in the retail industry, Amazon has leveraged cross-medium approaches to interacting with their customers, all while meticulously personalizing the user experience journey.
Through ever-evolving Amazon Prime membership benefits and innovations like Amazon Echo, the company manages to exponentially increase its user engagement every year. The genius of Alexa demonstrates a brand that’s determined to create an on-demand, signature experience that is slowly becoming more indispensable in user’s daily lives.
Alexa speaks to users by name, prompts them with personalized purchase options, and offers endless customization options to enhance user experience. The seamless effort of voice-activated orders have Prime members making more purchases than ever before.
2. Help consumers achieve desired lifestyles.
Adidas is exemplary when it comes to brand evolutions that create lifelong loyalty in their consumers. Compelling taglines like “Impossible Is Nothing” tell consumers they’re purchasing more than sportswear – they’re adopting a can-do attitude that empowers them to push physical and social boundaries.
One key move to enhance user experience managed to secure Adidas as a lifestyle brand – the brand’s early relationship with social media lifestyle influencers. The $13.8 billion influencer marketing industry has created international hype around lifestyle products since 2006, and the market effect is massive.
Consider the company’s success nearly two decades ago, when Adidas’ groundbreaking 2006 collaboration with Kanye West produced the iconic Yeezy collection. The release was perpetuated almost entirely by leveraging the power of influencer fan bases across social media pages.
With a swift willingness to embrace new mediums and position itself inside of powerful new user platforms, Adidas secured its place as one of the most followed sports brands in the world on Facebook and Instagram.
3. Leverage the power of interactive experiences.
With 94% of the market able to recognize Coca-Cola based solely on the logo itself, the beverage company has gone above and beyond to appeal to more than just the consumer’s taste buds. By leveraging a range of interactive user experiences, the brand has built a positive sentiment across generations.
For example, every winter, Coca-Cola positions itself alongside the holiday season. Memorably, in 2015 Coca-Cola brought the world “Santa’s Virtual Sleigh Ride.” Using Oculus Rift, the brand invited consumers to experience life from the perspective of Santa Claus through virtual reality.
These kinds of unique, interactive user experiences feel memorable and personal. Studies suggest that people actually prefer the taste of Pepsi in blind taste tests but choose the flavor of Coca-Cola when they can see which brand they’re drinking, suggesting that people feel a powerfully strong sentiment towards Coca-Cola.
As brands consider building a lasting legacy among consumers, consider the powerful impact of strategically evolved user experiences. Staying relevant today means directing brand evolution strategies that engage with consumers on an experiential and personal level. So before your brand gets outshined by a competitor, position yourself to stay fresh in the minds of your consumers with an evolved user experience design.
