Better than We Once Were

Exceeding every memory and creating new ones.

I was a lead on the marketing team tasked with rejuvenating an aging brand. We had to win back consideration. Consumers had written the concept off and moved onto brighter, shinier and (frankly) better restaurants. We wanted to recoup our fair share and looked into an array of promises to regain consideration. Each variation of "come back, you’ll be satisfied or your money back” was met with a "meh, I kinda knew that.” We wanted to win back consideration but wouldn’t change the proposition of operations, execution, and investment.

This brings to mind a more recent conversation with a leader who wanted a marketing plan for retaining employees. I asked “well, why are employees leaving?” I inquired about culture and unmet needs. The leader had no answer. The leader hadn't looked into (much less addressed) the causes and conditions yielding their undesired result. While we might create some marketing flash & spectacle to divert the end user from what the brand isn’t delivering, I suggested we instead solve the problem rather than invest year-after-year in distracting from it.

This is much the same scenario as the restaurant company -- wanting loyalty without changing the proposition.

I started this post with a statement of certainty: "Exceeding every memory and creating new ones." Imagine this as the true north for an aging brand. “Exceeding every memory” proactively acknowledges that we are an older concept. Rather than run from years of experience and brand recognition, own it and then take advantage of it. People who know the brand and almost invariably have memories of them, some of which are strong. Control the narrative by promising to exceed even their best memory. As Millennials now move into their next life stage, nostalgia and its beautiful euphoric recall will follow. Remember those simpler days when a four-pack of crayons wrapped in a coloring menu was all I needed? Yes, sweet Millennial, we do so come in for some crayons and a Bloody Mary rimmed with Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning.

We can’t rest on the past because we know that’s a slippery slope into irrelevance. “Creating new” memories offers possibility, the exciting unknown. It also provides a thread, a tether of sorts, to our pasts which is powerful in an increasingly fractured world. Know who we were while celebrating who we’ve become.

A promise is nothing without action. A marketer could create the platform, identify visuals that respect our past while promising a brighter future, and communicate its message from the highest hilltop. We must execute. Otherwise, we’re a leader wondering why our employees are leaving without looking at our proposition, without looking at our leadership. It takes work to exceed every memory, but you imagine its impact? That’s timeless.