A BRAND IS FOREVER! A FRAMEWORK FOR REVITALIZING DECLINING AND DEAD BRANDS 2. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND The revitalization of a brand is usually less costly and risky than introducing a new brand, which can cost tens of millions and will more likely fail than succeed -Aaker(1991) 3. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND  neither the lifespan of a brand nor its ultimate destiny is predetermined  But, brand decline is a reversible process  Ex: Harley Davidson and ford after facing great competition lost their hold still regained their status because of their brand value. 4. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND The revitalization of a brand is usually less costly and risky than introducing a new brand, which can cost tens of millions and will more likely fail than succeed -Aaker(1991) 5. DECLINE AND DEATH OF BRANDS Brand equity framework: The differential effect that consumer knowledge about a brand has on the customer’s response to marketing activity, and consumer brand knowledge can be characterized in terms of brand awareness and brand image dimensions A brand with strong equity has high awareness and consumers hold strong, favourable, and unique brand associations 6. DECLINE AND DEATH OF BRANDS Pan am and Oldsmobile (general electrical) examples illustrate that even well-known brands can decline as a result of a wide variety of factors. 7. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE Product life cycle (PLC) framework: identifies four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. It uses sales to define the stages of the life cycle, which in turn are used to predict sales. Different forces leads to brand’s evolution • Managerial actions • Environmental factors • Competitive actions 8. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE MANAGERIAL ACTIONS Brands often decline because of leadership, management, and employees making excuses rather than acting with integrity Managerial actions which can cause this are: product quality, price increases, price cuts, brand neglect, and inability to stay with the target market. 9. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE MANAGERIAL ACTIONS Product quality: When compromises in product quality for cost-cutting reasons • do not impact brand loyalty in the short run, • managers mistakenly conclude that consumers are willing to accept or live with the change. • At some point when customers’ experiences with the brand do not live up to their expectations, • the brand starts to decline. 10. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE MANAGERIAL ACTIONS Price increases : If a company continues to raise prices without offering a corresponding increase in benefits, sooner or later consumers will start to abandon the brand. Volkswagen launched golf but was unable to control costs and had to keep raising prices, until it effectively drove itself out of the entry-level segment where it had once been a leader 11. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE MANAGERIAL ACTIONS Price cuts: When a company cuts prices in desperation to increase

1. A BRAND IS FOREVER! A FRAMEWORK FOR
REVITALIZING
DECLINING AND DEAD BRANDS

2. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND
The revitalization of a brand is usually
less costly and risky
than introducing a new brand, which can
cost tens of millions and will more likely
fail than succeed
-Aaker(1991)

3. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND
 neither the lifespan of a brand nor its ultimate
destiny is predetermined
 But, brand decline is a reversible process
 Ex: Harley Davidson and ford after facing great
competition lost their hold still regained their status
because of their brand value.

4. REVIVAL OF A DEAD BRAND
The revitalization of a brand is usually
less costly and risky
than introducing a new brand, which can
cost tens of millions and will more likely
fail than succeed
-Aaker(1991)

5. DECLINE AND DEATH OF BRANDS
Brand equity framework:
The differential effect that consumer knowledge about a brand
has on the customer’s response to marketing activity, and
consumer brand knowledge can be characterized in terms of
brand awareness and brand image dimensions
A brand with strong equity has
high awareness and consumers
hold strong, favourable, and
unique brand associations

6. DECLINE AND DEATH OF
BRANDS
Pan am and
Oldsmobile (general
electrical) examples
illustrate that
even well-known
brands can decline
as a result of
a wide variety of
factors.

7. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
Product life cycle (PLC) framework:
identifies four stages:
introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
It uses sales to define the stages of the life
cycle, which in turn are used to predict sales.
Different forces leads to brand’s evolution
• Managerial actions
• Environmental factors
• Competitive actions

8. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Brands often
decline because of
leadership,
management, and
employees making
excuses rather than
acting with
integrity
Managerial actions which can
cause this are:
product quality, price
increases, price cuts, brand
neglect, and inability to
stay with the target market.

9. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Product quality:
When compromises in product quality for
cost-cutting reasons
• do not impact brand loyalty in the short
run,
• managers mistakenly conclude that
consumers are willing to accept or live
with the change.
• At some point when customers’
experiences with the brand do not live up
to their expectations,
• the brand starts to decline.

10. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Price increases :
If a company continues to raise prices
without offering a corresponding increase in
benefits, sooner or later consumers will start
to abandon the brand.
Volkswagen launched golf but was
unable to control costs and had to
keep raising prices, until it effectively
drove itself out of the entry-level
segment where it had once been a
leader

11. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Price cuts:
When a company cuts prices in desperation
to increase sales.
To maintain low prices, the company
has to in turn use cheaper material.
This move ends brand’s image.
Ex: Lacoste (United states)

12. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Brand neglect :
Managers get wrapped up in the inertia of a
brand and begin to miss changes in the
market stated by brand manager of DeWalt
which once was a popular brand and
ignorance lead brand to virtually cease to
exist.

13. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
MANAGERIAL ACTIONS
Inability to stay with the
target market :
Gap popular started
to position itself to appeal to young and
teenage audience but in the process
alienated its core customers, who
felt neglected as the product strived to
become youthful and trendy henceforth lost
their target market and core customers.

14. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
Cigarette brands have, for
example, been affected by changes in
the legal environment. The industry is
facing an increasing number of
regulations and strong negative
publicity.

15. CAUSES OF BRAND DECLINE
COMPETITIVE ACTIONS
Companies loose their grip over market
due to immense competition
Ex:
Kmart lost their market over Walmart
Addidas was nearly swiped off in U.S.
by Nike.
Blockbuster a leading brand in
its market lost over relatively
newer brand Netflix

16. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
• The sign of impending brand death is a significant
drop in unit sales over a sustained period.
• While sales can fluctuate in response to market
dynamics and competitors’ actions, a prolonged
decline is a clear warning.
• Managers counter this by employing quick-fix
solutions, including raising prices or introducing
brand extensions.
•Such actions may push up revenues, but can often
mask the real problems.

17. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
There are three key elements of a brand’s
equity
• decline in brand knowledge,
• blurring of the differential effect, or
• Lack of customer response

18. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
DIFFERENTIAL EFFECT
• Why consumers should choose a particular brand from a wide
variety of alternatives available to them.
• Marketers can pursue two different approaches towards giving
consumers knowledge about brands.
1. When consumers feel that many brands in a product category
are similar. A strong case can be made to the consumers to
choose a particular brand if it is ‘‘value priced’’; that is, the
brand offers good quality at a low or competitive price.
2. Is to create differentiation from other brands. This can be
done on the basis of superior quality, physical attributes, or
intangible benefits. If marketers are successful in creating this
differentiation, they are in a position to charge a premium for
their offering.

19. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
BRAND KNOWLEDGE
For a brand to be successful, consumers should be
knowledgeable about it.
• Understand why it is a more compelling choice than
the other alternatives,
• whether because it is different from them or
represents a better value.
•We now discuss the two components of brand
knowledge:
-brand awareness, and
-brand image.

20. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
BRAND KNOWLEDGE
Brand awareness:
A popular brand will
have very high aided recall
and high top-of-mind recall.
Managers are get into
complacency by past
success prompting them to
cut back on advertising even
when a brand begins to
struggle.

21. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
BRAND KNOWLEDGE
Brand image:
It is important for a brand to
maintain ‘‘strong, favourable,
and unique brand
associations’’.
Volkswagen manager declared that ‘‘
Volkswagen had failed in the past
when we used marketing
strategies or introduced new products
that strayed from the company’s image
of being approachable, friendly, and a
German brand’’

22. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
CUSTOMER RESPONSE
• While sales figures are considered the gold
standard for measuring customer response
managers may look to other leading
indicators such as purchase intentions and
brand loyalty measures.
• Data are obtainable via standard questions
which are often included in survey panels
maintained by companies as part of ongoing
tracking efforts.

23. DECONSTRUCTING BRAND
DECLINE
CUSTOMER RESPONSE
• While sales figures are considered the gold
standard for measuring customer response
managers may look to other leading
indicators such as purchase intentions and
brand loyalty measures.
• Data are obtainable via standard questions
which are often included in survey panels
maintained by companies as part of ongoing
tracking efforts.

24. REVITALIZING BRANDS
A brand may maintain high awareness levels even when its image
has taken a hit (e.g.,Pan Am). Similarly, some brands may not get
a proper response from customers because of ineffective
marketing efforts and may slide into a decline,
even when brand awareness and brand image numbers are
favourable (e.g., St. John Knits).
Addressing the weak element in such
cases can help capture the equity that
remains in the brand that would
otherwise be lost, put the brand in a
leadership position, and get
appropriate returns from this
investment.

25. IS THE BRAND WORTH REVIVING?
 Brand may be worth reviving if there is significant
residual value in one or more of the components of
brand equity.
 examining all three elements of brand equity
1. knowledge,
2. the differential effect of this knowledge, and
3. customer response
 It is equally important, however, to determine the
realistic amount of investment that is needed to
truly revive the brand and, where appropriate,
compare that to the cost of replacing the brand with
a new one.

26. TAKE A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE
 Reviving a brand is also a long-term initiative
 When Blockbuster was under attack by Netflix it
was easy to see that the movie rental industry
environment had changed to a market that was
relying increasingly on the Internet, and Blockbuster
had to adjust to this in order to thrive in the market.
 Brands that commanded a premium in the recent
past, and had a singular focus with a well-defined
differentiation, can be revitalized.
 Research was the primary tool used to revive the
DeWalt brand

27. CAREFULLY REPOSITION THE BRAND,
INVEST IN IT, AND EDUCATE THE MARKET
 A brand’s promise plays a major role in
differentiating the brand from its competitors.
 If the brand did not invest sufficiently in quality, and
always try catch-up with the competition. It suffers
from negative image.
 As part of its long-term strategy, the company has
to plan to continue rebuilding the brand’s image.

28. LET THE REVITALIZATION BEGIN!
 Many brands in today’s market have been referred
to as ‘‘ghost brands,’’
 Given the high cost of launching new brands,
companies are increasingly looking to revitalize
dying or dead brands in their portfolio.
 Managers need to constantly watch for signs of
brand decline, in the form of problems with brand
knowledge, brand differentiation, and customer
response.

29. THANK YOU
Created by Anuj Maingi,
IIT (BHU), Varanasi
during an internship
under Prof. Sameer Mathur,
IIM Lucknow.
www.IIMInternship.com