In the new world of social media and catchy advertising, companies are certainly facing new challenges in terms of branding and rebranding their products. Everything is so visual and interactive now, and there are many competitors vying for our attention.
For even established brands, this new landscape is difficult to traverse. According to an article from the New York Times, longtime coffee industry giant Maxwell House is gearing up for a climb back to the top.
After falling to the No. 2 spot in sales behind Folgers, Maxwell has decided to roll out a 20-25 million dollar makeover campaign of their brand. In fact, they’ve enlisted six agencies to contemporize their brand on all fronts, all in an attempt to engage the future generations of consumers while holding on to the old ones.
While none of this comes across as any sort of shock, I think it’s interesting to see just how profound the advertising culture has changed over the past ten or twenty years. It’s no longer enough to produce a great product. To remain visible, you now have be much more creative and socially active with your brand.
Established companies in the brewing industry are no exception. According to an article on rebranding from Business Insider, the Milwaukee based Pabst Brewing Company is retailoring some of its products for consumers in China. By adding a foreign tag line and fancier packaging to a new product, they are making their brand more appealing to an emerging market of Chinese beer consumers.
As multimedia advertising and creative marketing continues to become vital to business success, we are likely to see many other companies follow suit. The old and familiar will have to get hip to the new doctrine of brand development, or risk remaining in a forgotten time when a great product and a catchy slogan was enough to do the trick.
Brenden Lynch 