This 18yr old strategy is still better than most done today

We face many threats in the world of brand building. However, if I were to pinpoint two of the worst they would be:

• An obsession with the new

• A lack of ambition.

Let me break down what they are, why they are a problem & why an 18-year-old strategy manages to overcome both of them.

Marketing, for better or worse, has an obsession with the new. We love to jump on the latest bandwagon or trend. Twenty years ago it was the rise of direct mail, ten years ago it was an obsession with QR codes and today there is a frenzy around A.I. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s important to always have one eye on the future. My issue with ‘newness’ however, is that it too often leads to short-termism. We are so obsessed with moving faster to the future, that we rarely if ever, stick with our long-term plans. And this presents a real problem for brand building. Why? Well, we know that brands take decades to build, not days… so how can we hope to possibly achieve this if there is a constant temptation to pivot to the new, every six months?

Fig 1: Brands take decades, not days, to build.

The second big threat in marketing is what I call a lack of ambition. To be clear there are many wonderful and ambitious people within the marketing field. The issue, however, is that too often ambitious brand-building is ground down by committee voting or office politics. This too often leads to brands barely going beyond features or benefits, when it comes to communicating their products. This is frustrating. Why? Well, brands have the power to play a much bigger role in the world and shape culture for the better…yet in reality, so very few do.

Now before you call me about on-brand purpose, hold your horses and use your imagination for a second. We know fame is the biggest driver of growth (ie getting people to talk about your brand)…and guess what…one of the best ways to achieve this is to tap into what people are already talking about (ie culture). You see playing a bigger role in the world does not necessarily mean lofty bullsh*t purpose. Infact i can often be quite irrelevant or playful, Lego being a brilliant example of this.

Fig 2: Brands should be more ambitious and aim to shape culture.

In light of these two threats, that’s why I think this 18-year-old strategy from Dove is better than most developed today. Why? Well, it is only one of a handful of brands that have truly managed to avoid the threats of newness and realized a far greater ambition. It has managed to build one of the most iconic and effective long-term brand strategies, in recent memory. A brand that has elevated Dove far above other beauty brands, that are still too often obsessed with features and benefits. It is one of the few brands that has genuinely shaped culture by “Championing Real Beauty” for close to twenty years.

Conclusion
Next time you come across a guru selling the latest marketing gimmick or you see your brand’s ambition being watered down, take a step back. Ask yourself what is the legacy you want to leave in the next decade. Do you want to create more marketing garbage to go on the endless landfill of mediocrity? Or are you up for the challenge of thinking long-term and shaping culture for the better?

Over the last few months at Defiant, we have started working on three amazing brands, helping them just to do that. We also beat three big legacy agencies in the process. Agencies who sadly too often appease their clients and avoid difficult conversations. The types of talks you need to think long term and truly shape culture. So if you feel like your agency is not cutting and you're up for the challenge, we not drop me a note. Why do you…dare to be Defiant.