• by John Tanner , Yesterday

Every brand wants relevance, and every marketer is expected to deliver it. Yet few brand teams are fully clear on what relevance actually means, how to achieve it, or how to sustain it over time.

Part of the confusion lies in how we define it. Relevance often gets reduced to the signals of change we can see: a refreshed identity, a new tone of voice. a campaign designed to feel culturally current. But relevance is not about evolution for its own sake, and it is not about imitation.

On the heels of Dr. Pepper’s homemade jingle going viral, Vita Coco partnered with the same jingle creator to craft something distinctly its own, shaping the collaboration around its relaxed, wellness-forward personality. It was rooted in social listening and fan engagement, amplifying a cultural spark without abandoning the brand’s laid-back identity

What Relevance Is, and What It Is Not

When brands resist change entirely, they begin to feel distant,  gradually out of step, or show up in ways rooted in the past. But when they overcorrect, they often abandon the signals that made them recognizable. Relevance is about knowing what should endure (purpose, values, emotional equity) and what should evolve (expression, participation, and storytelling).

Gap illustrates the tension between modernization and identity. At its 1990s peak, the brand was a cultural staple, defining modern basics through iconic campaigns, accessible style, and broad generational appeal. Then it began to lose its way to fast-fashion competitors and a blurred point of view. The 2010 logo redesign became a flashpoint: an abrupt switch to a generic Helvetica mark was reversed within a week after consumers rejected it, a public reminder that modernization without continuity erodes rather than builds trust. 

Relevance is not found in abandoning your past or freezing it. It is built by carrying your equity forward, evolving how you show up.

Three Ways Brands Build Relevance

1. Brands that sustain relevance share a set of consistent behaviors.They stay culturally close, building real-world proximity to how people actually live, turning insights into meaning. My advice:

Go beyond the category. Study consumers in their real lives, how they spend time, shop, eat, travel, and socialize to uncover unmet needs and cultural tension.

Use social listening, community groups, and retail feedback. Always on, real-time insights, powered by AI and digital data, help brands stay in sync with culture.

2. They stay true to their core by knowing what to hold onto and what to evolve. My advice: 

Define your brand’s values, point of view, and emotional role in people’s lives. These are the signals audiences recognize and trust, and they should remain constant even as the brand evolves. 

Modernize expression, including design systems, tone of voice, partnerships, and storytelling

3. They are built to flex through partnerships, social content, retail experiences, or cultural moments while staying true to themselves. My advice:

Create design systems that are modular, scalable, and can stretch across formats, channels, and collaborators without losing coherence.

Think beyond the usual with partnerships, retail theater, and social-first moments that allow the brand to participate in consumers’ lives.

Brand equity builds over time. Cultural perception can change overnight. The brands that learn to manage both, protecting what makes them familiar while finding fresh ways to express it, do more than stay current. They stay meaningful.