Legacy. We strive for it, work to create it, desire to leave it after we are gone and diligently fantasize of what it would look like after that. Generally, we tend to over compensate, but no successful brand was ever created thinking it would not be a market leader.
Now personally (as in speaking for a personal legacy), that could make sense...but that is simply not good business. True brand legacy should transcend beyond a generational timeline, beyond the scope of social constructs, beyond the constraints of a market, a demographic segment or geographical location and represent the core value at ever stage by adapting the delivery message behind it.
Traditional legacy brands invested heavily over an extended period of time to create a layered message sustained and adjusted to the perception of a particular target audience. The core of the legacy should be embedded in the name, the icon and the category represented by automatic emotional psychological triggers.
Many succeeded during the past 100 years in doing so, and yet, some of these landmark (or legacy) brands have quickly become obsolete, here's why:
i. Nostalgia is not enough, the message does no longer resonate with the customer and it
ceased to portray an updated relevant message.
ii. The "Too Big to Fail" mentality kicks in, and we believe that whatever helped us
become relevant in the first place, will continue to be relevant for future to come. Wrong.
iii. The market changed, and the brand insists on keeping its core attributes out of
necessity (does not know what they need to change),
iv. You no longer know who you are talking to (which is incredible because basic
Neural Network AI analysis would tell you precisely that --- however, Retail
Neuronomics would tell you why! --> but that is part of a different conversation.)
“It is more like these brands are breaking up with the customers. I think that at some point the customer decides to pack up and leave,” says Santiago Gallino, a Wharton professor.
Both Lotman (1994) and Rossi-Landi (1996) emphasize that certain dominant codes (those who have a hegemonic place with respect to others and who manage to impose their structural and organizational principles) tend to exist within a commonly understood set of semiotic representations. The current environment does not reward the initial impact, but adopts as its own that which generates lasting emotions, unique experiences, a sense of permanence and social belonging.
The precept of a Legacy brand is precisely its ability to go beyond a simple communicative effort and appeal to the emotional unconscious of the human being. Digging deeper, the focus on instinctual desires, rather than superficial or temporal interests, emotional connection shift from a desire for acquisition to a complete aversion to loss, thereby strengthening the brand-person relationship to more than a simple effort that communicates short-term benefits. A Legacy brand generates loyalty based on reason, even beyond it. The reason these brands exist is born from the limited approach of the term marketing, under which these concepts are theoretically governed, since the scope of the discipline does not appeal to the depth of the mind human and collective. Sheehan (2013), based on Calne's investigations, proclaims that emotion leads to action, & reason to conclusion.
The perpendicular relationship between love and respect for the brand will be based not only in their ability to create creative communication, but to genuinely bring an added value, superior feeling and unconscious level satisfaction that reinforces the decision-making process. Consequently, the statistics show that according to the analyzed categories, the possible tangible increase ranges from 60% to a 130%, so Legacy should be in your company's vision.
Although digital native brands start to compete, and can span across an intangible universe, so can physical and Legacy brands. The question will continue to be, who will be first, who will be faster, and who's core attributes will outlast the trend and set pave the way to overcome another generational milestone.
For more on Love, Landmark and Legacy Brands, stay tuned for the upcoming release of our very first edition of Retail Neuronomics: neural economics beyond customer touchpoints.
--- Dr. Stephen C. Patton
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