As this pandemic wanes.
Meaningful brands.
Meaningful brands that unfortunately died because of the pandemic.
They’ll be bought.
And they’ll be bought by vultures.
Authentic Brands.
Authentic brands are born from the personality of the founder.
Authentic brands are built around the change the founder wants to make.
Or at least.
They bloody should be.
Change.
And if the authentic brand is built properly.
And run properly.
Every single thing the brand does.
Makes the change the founder wants to make more likely to happen.
That’s the way brand works.
Fans.
Fans gather around the brand.
Fans want you to succeed.
Because fans want the change that you want, too.
So they support you.
Buy from you.
And tell others.
Pandemic.
This pandemic, though.
It’s messing things up.
It’s going to kill many brands.
And that’s a shame.
Because sometimes something as simple.
And as unpredictable
As good old (bad old) bad luck will get you.
And there’s nothing the brand can do.
Vultures.
As this pandemic wanes.
Meaningful brands.
Meaningful brands that unfortunately died because of the pandemic.
They’ll be bought.
And they’ll be bought by vultures.
Vultures that care little for what the brand creator cared for.
And that’s confusing.
Because vultures are rarely brand-driven.
They are sales-driven.
So they shift the strategy from ‘tell more’.
To ‘sell more’.
And vultures chop quality.
And batter supply chains.
To increase margin.
So that they can recoup what they paid for the brand equity embers as quickly as possible.
In summary.
They are buying the brand’s reach and recognition.
And putting what the brand actually stood for.
In the bin.
Mike Ashley.
My respect for Mike Ashley starts and ends with his ability to make money.
My respect ends abruptly when I think about what he does with the money he makes.
Which.
As far as I can see.
Is little more than a grown up Augustus Gloop would do.
And my respect for Mike Ashley also ends with what he does to brands I grew up with.
Like Slazenger.
Which to me as a younger man meant smart.
Sporty.
And ambitious.
Now it means cheap.
Like Everlast.
Which to me as a younger man meant tough.
Edgy.
And saturated with US swagger.
Now it means cheap.
Kangol.
Which to me as a younger man meant cool.
Fuck-you single-mindedness.
And progressive.
Now it means cheap.
Look further.
So please.
Look closer at the brands that you know.
Or at least.
The brands that you think you know.
Especially in the next 1 to 5 years.
You can avoid the vultures by looking not at what the brand does.
But by looking at what the brand is for, instead.
Check that brand behaviour is still aligned to the thing they’re supposed to believe in.
The thing that you believe in.
And if it is.
They’re a brand.
But if all the brand seems interested in these days is floggings stuff.
They may very well have been gobbled up by a vulture.
