For brands, heritage means history, recognition, and built-up trust. Brands that have shaped culture, created memories, and earned a place in people’s lives.
But when culture moves on and relevance fades, your brand heritage is at risk.
At Brandon, one of our specialisms is helping our client partners revitalise their heritage brands to fuel future growth, brands like PizzaExpress, Imperial Leather and Horlicks. Reflecting on our approach, I’ve mapped out four key ingredients for success, with examples I’ve spotted out in the world recently.
The Heritage Trap
There are many ways brands build their heritage. A strong founding spirit like Cadbury’s generosity. A distinctive positioning like Southwest Airlines’ low fares. A characteristic aesthetic like Apple’s clean minimalism. Or an emotional connection like Dove’s real beauty. The possibilities are endless, and yet all heritage brands have one thing in common: a responsibility to stay relevant, clear and connected.
The trouble is, the more successful brands are at building their heritage, the riskier it becomes to shift. Heritage grows slowly but can fade fast if you take the wrong steps. That leaves space for consumers to evolve and competitors to steal the limelight. Get it wrong, and you risk becoming generic, undesirable and utterly forgettable.
That’s exactly where Brandon steps in.
Brandon’s Four Key Ingredients to Fuel the Future Growth of Your Heritage Brand
1. Cultural Zeitgeist: stay on the pulse
We start by understanding what is relevant today: the mood of the moment, the trends, the things your audience care about. This matters. It’s not just about keeping up with the times, it’s about aligning with the way your audience see the world. It’s much easier, and usually more powerful, for your brand to build from a belief or story your audience already holds than to try to build a new narrative from scratch.
A bit like Dunkin’. Amidst strong competition from aspirational coffee brands, Dunkin’ doubled down on what made it unique: fast, familiar, everyday. Then it brought the core humour and accessibility of its brand to life by partnering with down-to-earth celebrity favourites like Sabrina Carpenter, successfully shifting from has-been to nostalgic cultural touchstone.
2. Brand Story: unlock your magic
Once we’ve understood what is relevant, we help ensure you only chase down the trends that are authentic to you. Our real art lies in helping you understand the magic of your brand and leveraging that in a meaningful way for today. We work with you to uncover how your brand came to be – the founding spirit, key insight, or the product truth that drove the original success – and what elements of that remain special today. Being clear on the core idea behind your brand gives us something to anchor back to, even if how we do that evolves over time.
This lets you align your brand story with cultural narratives and moments in a way that feels authentic and relevant for your brand.
A bit like Corona. The brand platform ‘This Is Living’ is all about the simple, mindful enjoyment of life with the people that matter. It’s a universal and enduring truth. Understanding the core of the brand has enabled Corona to tell the story of aspirational beach life in ways that evolve for the times; from hyper localised examples during the pandemic to incorporating newer cultural cues such as wellness, mindfulness and digital detox today.
3. Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs): memorable expression
Distinctive Brand Assets, or DBAS, exist to help your story stick. We begin by understanding which assets still hold meaning for your audience, or can be used to reinforce the story we want to tell. This helps us decide which to keep, evolve or replace. When assets aren’t working hard enough, we can develop or create new, more meaningful expressions for you to leverage. Every asset should work hard to visually support the brand narrative, building memory structures that stick, so that over time the brand becomes noticed, chosen and loved.
A bit like Coca-Cola. The recent brand identity refresh elevates and amplifies its Distinctive Brand Assets. The connecting ribbon, red and white colourways, and script type all reinforce the same brand story that’s been told for decades: happiness, connection and optimism.
4. Activation: show up and mean it
Finally, we help you show up in a meaningful way. This is all about what you do, what you deliver and who you associate with. Your activity should be an expression of your brand story, so we help to make sure that every touchpoint, experience, and collaboration supports the core idea.
A bit like Heinz. A brand that continually reinforces its ‘It Has To Be’ brand line by putting hero products centre stage of every activation. Based on the insight that sauce packets weren’t big enough for consumers to get their beloved dose of Heinz, and connecting to a cultural moment, the brand developed penalty packs to sustain fans for the World Cup.
Each of these examples focuses on just one key ingredient, but the reality is that all four matter. We work with you to thread these together so your brand can thrive.
I’ll leave you with a bonus thought on driving heritage brand growth that sums this up in one line. It comes from the great lady herself, Dolly Parton:
Driving growth for a heritage brand?
If you’re looking to drive growth for your brand and want a second opinion, we’re always available for an informal chat. Just drop us a line.
Or if you’re ready to jump in, join us for a 1-day Dolly Workshop. We’ll work with you using our Legacy Archetypes tool to identify where you are on your heritage journey and the challenges you face. Together, we will understand whether your brand story, DBAs and portfolio are still earning their keep, or whether they’re quietly losing you money, and how to move forward.
Thanks for reading!