One of the truest things in life is that all good things must come to an end.
The same is true for brands, even the best ones.
And, that is okay.
The challenge for many organizations comes in the fact that they don’t understand from the outset how to effectively think about and manage the full lifecycle of their brand.
How exactly should someone do that?
1. Begin thinking about the later stages of your brand’s life from the very start:
If the life cycle of a brand is laid out with consideration, you know that a brand is likely to go through four distinct stages:
- Birth
- Growth
- Maturity
- Decline
And, in the rush to get moving or to grow a brand, consideration isn’t given to the latter stages of maturity and decline.
Why should they be considered?
Because the greatest impact on your brand’s value to your company typically comes in the period of maturity and decline.
This is important because if you are concise in your planning, you can accelerate the pace at which your brand reaches maturity and capitalizes on the value created from higher name recognition and efficiency.
2. Thinking in terms of the full life of a brand enables you to offer greater service from the start:
If you understand what the life cycle of your brand is going to look like from the outset, it becomes much easier for you to provide a better customer experience and a higher level of service from the start. And, knowing what your plans are for the brand, you can already have plans in place for hiccups and challenges or transition points beforehand.
3. Properly managing your brand’s life cycle enables your marketing to be more effective:
As we move into an era where branding is really synonymous with marketing, knowing your planned life cycle for your brand can enable you to be more effective in all of your marketing and branding efforts.
Why?
Because knowing what the transition points are, having better information about your brand and the customers you are approaching can lead to be opportunities to more effectively use your marketing efforts to stand out in a cluttered marketing environment, target your specific audience with more precision, and ultimately to achieve better results with less money invested.