How to build a brand with a lasting legacy

Building a brand that leaves a lasting legacy in today's fast-paced market is no small feat. In "How to Build a Brand with a Lasting Legacy," we explore the strategic steps necessary to etch your brand into the minds of your audience and beyond. This guide offers a roadmap to creating a brand that not only stands out but also stands the test of time, ensuring its relevance and impact across generations.

What is brand legacy, and why does it matter?

Brand legacy is the terminology used to measure the impact of a brand on customers, industry, sector and society as a whole. Defining your brand is essential to create a lasting, sustainable and meaningful brand legacy. In order to become a market dominator we must look at some of the most key elements that provide the foundations for a presence that outlasts and supersedes those of your competitors.

Goals and approach:

When we think of brand legacy, the first thing that springs into mind is 'long-term'. What doesn't come up is the journey of discovery, foundation, trial and error and failures that lead to a final outcome of brand legacy. For example, Harry and I are serial startup entrepreneurs, who have had to layout the foundations to a cohesive lasting legacy through copious amounts of trial and error. The rocky road of entrepreneurship is windy and confusing, what defines a business as sustainable is the ability you have to face adversity and Breakthrough it. With our independent endeavors, we have both equally faced challenges in brand persona, that have ultimately lead to difficult decisions and unreasonably time consuming and cost ineffective efforts to align ourselves with our competitors.  What is the reasoning for this? Short term orientation. As a small, aspirational or growing business owner, it is important to always have direction. The psychology of manifestation is convincing enough on its own, but with some research and calculated strategy to follow, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge has shown that companies with a short-term focus tend to have more volatile stock returns and a higher estimated cost of equity capital, indicating greater risk. On the other hand, long-term-oriented firms, by focusing on sustainable practices and long-term value creation, often enjoy lower volatility and cost of capital, suggesting increased business sustainability.

Consumer perception

Considering this, let's have a look at what the perception of a strong legacy would be in the eyes of a consumer, Omicle, Content Queens wrote:

A lasting brand legacy in the eyes of consumers is shaped by several key factors, including a brand's consistency, standardization, and the ability to evolve over time while maintaining a strong, identifiable personality. A brand with a lasting legacy, like Nike, is recognized for its long history, positive reputation, and the ability to convey its brand personality through various channels of communication, such as copywriting and design of ads, products, and campaigns. To build a brand legacy, it's essential to focus on creating a consistent style guide, developing a unique brand personality that resonates with the audience, and ensuring the brand evolves and grows with its customers. This approach helps increase visibility and fosters trust and loyalty among consumers, contributing to a brand's lasting legacy.

What does this mean?

Nike is referenced as having long history, a positive reputation, and ability to convey this through unified messaging across all channels. This is the definition of brand legacy, long term goal driven. A brand that survives the test of time, is able to adapt and grow with society and maintains regular, consistent messaging to consumers, rendering them strong and memorable.

To evaluate where you can develop your brand strategy to aim for lasting legacy we suggest:

Evaluating your goals, and keeping records of how achievable these goals have been.

Preparing yourself for feedback of both positive and negative in nature. Positive feedback is most effective in the short term, however we have found that negative feedback can be the crucial factor in developing a long term strategy, there is much more to be learned in failure.

Build a business model that isn't dependent on current market, define your own strategy that is evergreen and can withstand the test of time.

Remain accessible, adaptable and learning oriented as you grow, in order to gain traction we have to assume that your brand has to stand out to someone that has never seen it before, just as much as a consumer that has been with you for an extenuated period.

Receive internal, and external feedback, and be willing to uproot your conceptions on what works and what doesn't, based on these findings. Many businesses that stagnate, fail or just don't have the capacity to grow, tend to showcase direct links to their inability to let go of traditional conceptions, especially in a Post-Covid world. It is critical to remain pivotal, and remember that consumers perceptions have changed substantially in that time, and sometimes a pivot is the only option to maintain sustainable sales growth.

Tips and reminders for building brand legacy:

We have experienced the troubles and downfalls of developing a lasting brand, so you don't have to. Here are some of the most crucial tips and tricks we have found along the way:

1. Use tools like A/B Testing to establish where your positioning is in comparison to consumer positioning. Whatever the outcome, both results will be big markers on your trajectory moving forwards.
2. Pitch your product to multiple age groups and demographics, to test your understanding of your target market, as well as your own concept of your product. There may be a more useful strategy to position your marketing based on the findings of this information.
3. As always, using market research and analysis. See how your direct competition, and your aspirational competition place their messaging, to therefore be able to position your own model to fit wherever you want it to within your industry.
4. Finally, remain flexible with goals, especially as a startup business. From one day to the next, your perception of short, medium and long oriented goals will most likely change, it is critical to take this as positive information. If you are constantly developing, no matter how that looks, you are positioning yourself to outlast the market.

We know that this isn't easy. Trust me, we have been there! However we absolutely recognise and accept that with the ever evolving climate of digital businesses that exist today, at any stage of your business journey you have to stay on top of your brands' evolution, not just to build a brand legacy but to survive the first, most crucial years in any new business venture.

I haven't got the time, what now!

It can be extremely difficult to invest time, resources, manpower and flexibility to pivot your infrastructure in a growth capacity, especially post-launch, that's why we built Breakthrough Branding. Our solution to your problem is simple, we create the pathway for your brand to build it's legacy, whilst you get the opportunity to generate and convert more leads. Connect with us today, through a 30 minute free discovery call, or alternatively connect with us directly using the links below. Let's partner to create a legacy that lasts forever.

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