There comes a time in every brand’s life, when its owners need to plan how to maintain sustainable growth for the future.

Traditionally the options have been to go to the markets to raise capital; or to look for a larger, more established partner. With the former option now less viable due the global economy, the latter is perhaps a more realistic option for businesses looking to take their brands to the next level. It’s interesting, then, that the sale of a minority stake to Coca-Cola should provoke criticism of Innocent from some quarters.

From a branding point of view, partnering with a more experienced company can actually bring greater clarity of focus on your core values and brand essence - illustrative case studies include Kiehl’s with L’Oreal, Ben & Jerry’s with Unilever and Green & Black’s with Cadbury.

As one of our senior consultants, Nikki Reeves summarised, “It’s the balancing act between staying true to the core values of your brand – whilst finding ways retaining relevance to your consumers over the years”.

What will be fascinating to observe is how Innocent develops with access to the expanded opportunities and expertise of the Coca-Cola organisation. Not the end of this brand story by any means, but just the start of the next chapter…

The £5,000 Logan was only intended for Romania but Renault was stunned when it was a French and German hit. Renault now has plans for Romanian Dacia to turn into a world-beater. The company stumbled on a new market of drivers who rarely bought a new car. There are no frills, but they do come with airbags and ABS. The key to the lower costs is simply lower wages. Staff are paid one-eighth of the salary of French Renault workers.

Buoyed by their success, three more new models are now being planned under high secrecy at the Romanian plant. Toyota are also said to be carrying out a detailed study into the potential of the budget car market. But looming in the distance are the motor manufacturers of China and India – they are gearing up for a big push into North America and Europe.

Now with all the essentials and safety features we’ve come to expect but priced at $2,500, the Indian Tata Nano will forever change the economics of cars. Given the current price crash on forecourts across the UK, how low can new car prices go before the allure of traditional European car brands start to fade?

A recent article in The  Times by Ben Macintyre – “Great Minds Think Differently”, got me thinking. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article5954441.ece

He discusses how, in these tough times, the philosophers and thinkers people turn to are changing. How Sun Tzu (the Chinese military strategist, much quoted at the beginning of the Iraq war) seems to have fallen out of favour with the US Army and how we have seen a rehabilitation of John Maynard Keynes as governments use fiscal stimulus to boost national economies. 

All of which made me think what shifts are we seeing in marketing thinking? The most obvious one, beyond a focus on price and value, that has struck me is a shift – a return? - to a more functional approach to marketing and branding. A resurgence of the Kotler, Reeves and the “P&G” approach focusing on the functional attributes and benefits of brand and the search for the marketing Holy Grail of a USP.  

Given the tough conditions it makes sense too. Everyone is thinking about what they spend their money on and so wanting to make sure what they buy is worth it. They want to know what it does, how well it does it and why it’s better than the alternatives.

We’ve always believed that the essence of a great brand is a combination of both functional and emotional – what we call the Emo-Func and depicted it with a variation on the Yin-Yang symbol. If what I’m suggesting is true then it is not that brands can ignore the “Emo”, it’s just that the “Func” is becoming relatively more important.

Perhaps like women’s hemlines, which have traditionally been seen as an barometer of economic performance, the swing in the balance of Emo-Func can be an invaluable indicator for marketers.