Change we don't believe in

From Drew:

Leave your brand alone!

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 01:58 PM PDT

Picture this. You have created a relevant brand-centric tagline that your customers parrot, the marketplace recognizes and your competitors covet. You have reached the holy grail of marketing -- you have embedded your marketing message into the minds of the consumer.

Your research shows that believability and recall for your product and the associated tagline are incredibly high. This tagline and the fact that you keep the tagline's promise catapults you to a leadership position in your product category.

What should you do now?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Why is it so hard for companies to leave a good thing alone? Well, typically when an organization walks away from a rock solid, consumer celebrated tagline one of a few things has happened:

• The organization recently hired a new head of marketing.
• The organization recently hired a new agency.
• Internally, they're bored with the current tagline.

Several years ago, watchmaker Timex dropped its famous "Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking" tagline for the incredibly bland "Timex. Life is Ticking." They made this decision despite the fact that "Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking" was ranked #40 on Ad Age's list of the top 100 ad campaign of the 20th century.

Why would they do something so dumb? They hired a new Chief Marketing Officer of course. He has since left that position. And their current tagline? "Timex. Be there now."

How sad is that?

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