More and more often, we see tired brands being put out to pasture and replaced by presumably better ones. Although weakened brands may have lost their currency, there is often life left in them in the
form of embedded equity and a remaining core of loyal consumers. Many brands have been successfully revitalized, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Johnnie Walker, Olay, and Ford's Mustang.
Most brand managers will eventually have to make the decision either to stay the course or to abandon ship. As tempting as starting anew is, it carries its own risks. But the price of sticking with a
faltering brand can be just as disastrous.
Booz Allen Hamilton has developed a tool kit that provides data-driven analytics for making the decision. It examines every aspect of a
brand, including its communications strategy, its pricing, and the state of its competitors, to reveal how much life is left in the name. But the process isn't aimed at just returning brands to their
former strength; more often, it's focused on retaining the core of the brand while finding new opportunities, as Procter & Gamble did with its repositioning of Old Spice.
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