Brand Turnaround, Rock and Roll Style

I have an interesting marketing dilemma. I've already posted it to my Twitter account, but thought I'd explore it more thoroughly here on The BeanCast site and see what the marketing podcast audience thinks.

A friend of mine is a semi-famous musician. By this I mean that he and his former band were known domestically and internationally by a very loyal fan based, enjoyed one break-out hit in the Christian Contemporary Music circuit (which is surprising, considering he doesn't fit the CCM mold at all), but never quite got to the mainstream. Then after burning many bridges with his penchant for telling things like it is, he now finds himself without label support and fading away from public view.

When I reconnected with him and digested what I know of his career, I see all sorts of parallels with certain corporate brands. American business (both big and small) is filled with storied brands that fall out of favor or get tarnish, but then rise up to new heights through a careful re-introduction. Apple, Harley-Davidson, Yuengling, Jeep, and on and on. (And yes, I realize that a few of these brands are falling on hard times again, but bear with me.)

Considering these stories of these brands led me to think about what are the common factors of a successful brand recovery. Here's what I came up with:

• Fix the product! Before you can even consider a re-launch, you have to know that what you are selling is something you can believe in. Apple stripped away the fluff and simplified the product lines into only best-in-class machines. Harley fixed the mechanical problems that had plagued the bikes for years. Yuengling changed their formulas and adopted a micro-brewing approach. Take away the fluff and look at what made people loyal in the first place and then go there with everything you have.
• Have a story. I'm not just talking about the typical brand messaging. I mean have a story that people can digest. Yuengling wasn't just a great beer — they were America's Oldest Brewery. They also had the lesser known, but equally important story that they were the world's first all-female run brewery when the Yuengling sisters took it over replaced the Yuengling and Sons name. Same with Apple. They focus on product, but there's always the story of Steve Job's return that fuels the enthusiasm beneath. Jeep creates adventures and they reconnected with their history of taking people out of their comfort zones. A story beneath the brand gives your customers something to talk about. And talk is essential in the business of brand recovery.
• Energize the core base. Speaking of talking, successful brand recoveries involve getting the loyalists to come out and support the brand. And while each of our example brands have done it in different ways, each has paid attention to this ingredient. Apple has had it's big events and carnival-like approaches to making announcements. Harley started actively riding in and supporting all the many motorcycle club events that were out there. (Even their new CEO at the time would ride and he never rode a motorcycle before taking over the company.) Whether it's big budget excitement or personal interaction, you have to energize your loyal customers first to give your story legs in the wider markets.

Now certainly they all had marketing plans and brand campaigns and promotional offers that played a part in their respective turn-arounds. I don't want to say that you only need the factors I mention above. But what I am trying to say is that nearly all marketers have marketing plans — it's the above three elements that they may be ignoring.

I have no idea if I'll be able to help my friend. Music is a fickle business. But I can see that if we address these three issues as we plan, we'll at least have a fighting chance of achieving the success we seek.