Bringing brands back from the dead in much in the news at the moment and if you haven’t already you should make sure you vote in the poll that The Grocer is running :

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/bring-back-a-brand/224965.article

Resurrecting a brand  is not a new phenomenon but the advent of social media is certainly facilitating it. Social media allows enthusiasts to come together to apply pressure to companies to bring back the brands they want, in much the same way that it’s enabled businesses like L’Oreal to check demand for certain shades of makeup. It also enables people to connect across the country (countries) in larger numbers to make a more compelling business case. Wispa is perhaps the most obvious case in the UK, though after an initial high sales have slipped back on the brand.

A favourite example from the past for me, perhaps becuase it is so appropriately named is Reprise Records. The label was founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra, who subsequently acquired the nickname “The Chairman of the board”. One of its key distinguishing features was the amount of creative control it gave to its artists. The label was subsequently bought by Warner Bros in 1963. However despite success in the 1960s and early 70s the label was de-activated in 1976 and all the artists except Sinatra and Neil Young were transferred to the main Warner Bros label.

However in the summer of 1987 the reactivation of Reprise (the reprise of reprise) was announced  and its artists include Green Day , Michael Buble, Enya, Eric Clapton and My Chemical Romance.

Other favourites of ours here at The Vlaue Engineers include the Mini, The VW Beetle, Triumph Motorcycles, Fab ice lollies and Golden Nuggets breakfast cereals. In fashion – Biba and Converse are two welcome returnees. In the media world bringing back brands is a well worn tactic and successes include Star Trek, Hammer Horror, the Thundercats and even Dr.Who

Why is it so popular? Well there are a number of reasons…

1. Launching completely new brands is expensive and high risk so relaunching can be much cheaper as you’re building on residual awareness and hopefully warm nostalgic feelings.

2. Bringing back old brands, especially if they were once iconic, can attract so much press and PR interest, the cost comes down even further.

3. The return of old brands plays to nostalgic feelings when people who knew the brand have grown up (and may now be parents and grandparents and want to introduce their children to brands they used to enjoy

4. it may be that the brand failed not because it was a bad brand but because of bad business decisions (e.g Biba) or it was amalgamated into a masterbrand as part of a decison to reationalise a portfolio (e.g Wispa)

However it is not always a guarantee of success and for all of our list of brands that have come back from the dead, they are as many who have tried and failed. It looks like Birds Eye Arctic Roll might be going that way, Action Man first “died” in 1984, made a return as “The greatest hero of them all” in 1993, only to disappear again in 2006.

Believing that social networks are a great way to developing cosy relationships with customers. As it has been neatly observed by Steve Olenski, users of sites such as Facebook or Twitter carry a different set of assumptions and expectations than the marketers think they do. The view that customers’ ‘likes’ or ‘follows’ signify their willingness to socially engage their brand, is rather naïve.  67% of respondents actually want something tangible in return for showing their digital appreciation. At the same time 27% of marketers believe that their customers are looking for special savings. In other words, customers see the social network-based relationships with brands as transactional and brand owners kid themselves thinking they are more social. This is also very much the view of Sir Martin Sorrell who talks about this in his interview for the BBC documentary on Facebook.

Thinking that shifting your customers online is almost always good. In my short article in Q1 Market Leader I put out a case, based on our research, that pushing your customers to places they don’t want to go may be rather unwise. Knowing when and why your customers want to switch channels is key to giving them the right options at the right moments. If done properly, this translates to an abundance of customer goodwill and profit. If done badly, the whole business model could be at risk of unravelling. Don’t be fooled by a statistic, presented without any caveats, that the more channels customers engage in, the more valuable they are. Watch out as those customers may simply be in the mind-set of buying something (hence in need of deeper and wider research across channels to feel reassured) and might not be inherently more valuable.

Thinking that web is a separate entity and can be abstracted from the rest of the economy (or your business model). According to a recent study by the BCG on behalf of Google, democratisation of internet is reaching a critical point. In 2016, 3bn people will be connected. Soon it will look very silly to talk about the internet and web as a separate economy in the same way as it would be silly to talk about roads as separate part of the transport network. It will be just another means to make the shopping experience more rewarding, enjoyable, profitable etc. It would need to be seamlessly integrated, ideally from the ground up, with the rest of the business and perfectly married with customers’ needs and wishes.

It’s hardly news that the music industry is changing fast and being forced to adapt by the likes of iTunes and YouTube.  What is not, however, being shouted about enough is Spotify – and its dramatic takeover of the hearts and minds of youngsters who will define the music industry landscape of tomorrow.

I’m a Spotify Premium customer, meaning I pay £9.99/month for unlimited access to virtually all music that is out there – including streaming onto my iPhone. I do not own any music, don’t use the iPod function or even have iTunes. Spotify meets my music needs better than any other brand.

In the pre-Spotify era I would not have dreamed of spending £120/year on CDs or downloads, but now feel it’s providing me with such good value I don’t think twice about it. It is their ability to innovatively monetize the market that seemed like it was fast heading into the abyss of promotions (HMV) and giveaways (YouTube) that I admire most.

It’s true that Spotify’s profitability and financial future is a very controversial issue.  Yet no matter how healthy their finances are, it is critical to appreciate the revolutionary nature of their new revenue model. At a time when piracy threatens the music industry an approach that gets customers to pay more for accessing music whilst feeling they are getting better value is not to be sniffed at. The consumer interface of this model is a brilliant innovation, and even if Spotify are unsuccessful at making its financial ends meet other music providers should take note.

The other major breakthrough was the introduction of Spotify Social. Having access to your friends’ personal playlists and seeing which music they listen to in real time puts social media onto the next level in in terms of creating meaningful bonding experiences in the digital space. Compare this with Facebook – the Social Media King – whose Timeline has done more to confuse consumers than add any emotional value to their online relationships.

Spotify have not yet got it right. But they’re onto something, and the music industry better take notice of this completely new way of engaging with their audiences. After all – iTunes caught the big players unaware, and many (HMV included) have still not developed a strong enough platform to compete with Apple. History might be about to repeat itself.

Recent articles in Marketing referring to the rise in popularity of single malts among young consumers, coupled with events in Holyrood and at Westminster, mean that Scotland’s firmly on the radar at the moment.

After a long period of trading on a “shortbread and Brigadoon” vision of old Caledonia, the past few years have seen Scottish brands forging distinctive new identities reflecting the modern vibrant Scottish identity.

However, there are still occasions when it’s important to reflect on the past, and today is the day when Scots both at home and in the wider diaspora get together to bond over the past, and look to the future with confidence.

So, whether you’re celebrating at a formal dinner, at home with friends, or reeling in a barn in the Western Isles, The Value Engineers raise a glass with you.

Last night saw celebrations taking place across the globe, as people everywhere celebrated Chinese New Year and welcomed in the Year of the Dragon.

So what could that mean for brands? Aside from the usual plethora of promotional activities, targeted advertising and tourism campaigns, there are some interesting lessons for brand managers everywhere.

According to the Chinese zodiac, those born in the Year of the Dragon share certain characteristics. Take a look, and see how many of these four key elements you recognise in a brand around you.

• Dragons are the free spirits of the zodiac;  irrepressibly energetic and happy to ignore the rules and regulations that those around them try to impose.
• Everything a Dragon does is writ large:  flamboyant gestures, revolutionary ideas, prodigious ambitions.
• Dragons are innovative and highly adaptable. Where others stumble around the obstacles, they’ll find new paths to their end goal.
• Given all of the above, it’s no surprise that Dragons are brave, enterprising, and confident in their vision – but it’s anchored in a real passion for what they believe in.

I asked some of my colleagues to identify brands they felt were Dragons: brands that may not have been born under its sign, but certainly should have been. Some of the answers were predictable (Richard Branson, we salute you!) while others are more surprising…

Our nominations for the top 10 brands of the Dragon: 

• Virgin
• Innocent
• Red Bull
• Apple
• Dyson
• HSBC
• Google
• Facebook
• Jamie Oliver
• Absolut

But how do you go about turning your brand into a Dragon? Here are our top five tips for greatness:

1.  Write your messages large

In today’s world of multiplicity, even the most compelling brands can struggle to fit themselves into a single box. As long as your brand philosophy remains consistent, you can vary your propositions by audience, product or service. Let’s return to Virgin: from gyms to financial services to space flight, each sub-brand has a very different proposition – yet each is recognisably part of the Virgin DNA.

2.  Have the confidence to say ‘No’

Too many brands are wary of shutting down avenues or audiences, so find themselves falling prey to the old saw: ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. Marmite does it brilliantly: it’s unashamedly proud of the divisive taste of its product, and takes every opportunity to celebrate it. The end result? Even those of us who hate the taste can’t help but love the brand.

3.  Don’t let your customer make the rules

Of course, the customer’s needs and wants are hugely important – no-one’s denying it. But it’s easy to spend so much time listening to customer feedback that you forget your core purpose. Remember: insights drive marketing; visions drive brands. Where would Body Shop be today without Anita Roddick’s passion for change? Or Disney without Walt’s mission to make people happy?

4.  Adapt, adapt – and adapt again

Easy to say, much harder to do. If you keep running into a brick wall with a particular issue, it’s time to switch tracks. What’s the problem behind the problem? What’s the elephant in the room – the big issue everyone knows and no-one talks about? What can you steal from your competition? Or from another industry?

5.  Be a free spirit

Your mother always told you it was wrong, but when it comes to brands, a little bit of deviancy can be a very good thing.  Take the practice of market research as an example. Over the past decade, insight gathering has become established as a core tenet of good marketing practice, with new methodologies providing smarter, faster and deeper results. The unfortunate effect is that most brands are asking the same sorts of questions of the same sorts of consumers in the same sorts of ways – and getting to the same answers.  It’s a recipe for blanding, not branding. If that’s something you’re guilty of, it’s time to get deviant.

So as we go forward into the Year of the Dragon, why not take the time to stop and think about how your brand could breathe a bit more fire? And while you’re at it, feel free to share your nominations for the new brands of the Dragon with us, either here or on Twitter.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, one and all!