When someone starts a business, they do not want it to close anytime soon. Every trader wants his/her business to last for years. We often hear that this firm is incredibly old, the third or fourth generation is doing business today. People respect such firms or business houses and these people have won the trust of their consumers, employees, suppliers, and other associates. We can call such brands a Legacy Brand.
Technically legacy means it is around for years or remains from an earlier time. But there is a fundamental difference between such long running firms and a legacy brand. The firm remains confined to the individual level and plays into a fixed structure, while the legacy brand creates an institution that does not remain individual. As we see in many ads, they are finally writing under their brand logo since … like; Raymond writes the brand since 1925. Recently Arrow, a clothing brand, has launched a campaign to complete 25 years in India. But the original Arrow which is a brand of USA writes USA 1851 under its own brand. Tata Company, which has completed 150 years recently. You will find the TATA 150 logo in each of their brand advertising campaigns.
The reason for writing this is to tell the consumer how old we are, how experienced we are and how we have gained expertise in our field.
It is human instinct to care what happens to them when they are gone or how people will remember them. Then, be it a legacy of ideas, a legacy of principles, a legacy of self-service by doing social work or achieving a legacy by taking a top or leading position in business. Equity of one’s own work and name may be used as one’s own royalty or an institution may arise which will be remembered by future generations and will be helpful in various ways in their lives. It takes a lot of hard work, clear vision and solid planning to do that when you can say you are moving towards a legacy brand.
Two major points to be considered when one work towards creating a legacy brand; First I have to get in the habit of looking at my business beyond sales and second, I have to create a culture in my organization that is long lasting i.e. far-sighted and beneficial to those involved in your business. When the brand gets the title of legacy; it comes with its advantages and disadvantages. While there are benefits of trust and consistent increase in sales, at the other end people often make the mistake of taking their own brand for granted. Look at how many years we’ve been growing, we know everything, we know how to do business, and what we’re making or selling goods in any category is enough for us and so there’s no need to do anything else.
Customer comes to us and we will not go to them. In short, they are unwilling to change the formula or the system by which they run their brand. Until a few years ago this mentality was fine to have it but the ideology of today’s generation and consumer is different.
Legacy will be the last factor for them to choose their brand. They will give preference to and buy the brand which will offer what consumer wants and not the other way round. They have to be relevant to today’s consumer.
There are many new age brands available in the market today such as Flipkart, Amazon, new brands in mobiles, new fashion brands, new media brands which push the legacy brands back in their own category in terms of popularity.
In addition, the definition of legacy today is slowly changing. What we used to think was 30-50 or 100 years old is now being limited to 10-15 or 20 years. The definition of legacy is not in years but in what you can offer on a regular basis, because in today’s age of technology, today’s innovation becomes obsolete tomorrow, and the consumer wants something new every day.
We have seen a lot of brands which with their rigidity that we know everything and what we do is right couldn’t foresee future has disappeared from the hearts and minds of consumers overnight. We very well know what happened to Nokia and Kodak. One can also count many such automobile and technology brands.
So, what should a brand do to survive long term in such a time? Would it be impossible for a brand to get a legacy title in the near future? To cope with this:
- Today the brand must first change its mindset, be prepared to give what the consumer wants from what I have to give
- It is necessary to study the new trends i.e. product development and offerings to be designed according to the running trend. It will be necessary to innovate and offering newness in the product. Emphasis should be placed more on brand building and developing company culture without focusing only on sales
- If the brand builds, becomes popular then the sales will increase on its own. Talk about legacy only when you are the only one in your category who has spent years. If other people in the category are saying the same thing, avoid talking about your legacy and talk about the unique features of your product
- Communicate how those features are related to the life of today’s consumer and will be helpful. With this, when you communicate about a legacy, the consumer will adopt you, but it is difficult for any big or small brand to move forward today only basis legacy
- As we know many a times legacy brand is associated with an individual who has built that brand. At such time, it is important to create perception and promote brand through an institute or organization going beyond individual. Because a person is transient while his ideology or the organization, he created is eternal. It is therefore important to promote the organization so that true legacy can emerge
- A brand that thinks beyond product or service features and sales, that is, consumer-oriented or trades with the human emotions in mind, will last longer
- Consumers will always think about who to trust! The brand which will provide not only what they want but also offer effective service later, the brand that will justify their emotions will forever rely on such brands
So, to be a legacy brand or if there is a legacy brand, they should take inspiration from their past but not stick to it, study the future trends and shape the future accordingly but never leave the present in all this. Today’s consumer will embrace the legacy brand and help the new brand become a legacy brand if it is relevant to them and prepared to make the changes that are needed now.
Some parts of this article are excerpts from the book “BRAND BANSHE, BUSINESS VADHASHE”, written by Sameer Joshi, Founding Partner – Sam & Andy.