How old are your business products and services? I’m not talking about the age of your business in years, but rather where is your brand in its life cycle?

I have two dogs. They are rescue dogs, which means among other things, we are not sure how old they really are because they did not come with any papers. My veterinarian guesses they are between 10-12 years old based on the condition of their teeth, the color of their fur (the black one is starting to go gray), and their activity based on their breed – how many hours they sleep, how energetic they are, how often they play and run, etc. Dogs have life cycles. Puppies have energy to burn; old dogs do not. People have life cycles that pretty much mirror puppies and old dogs. The same is true of business products and services that are branded so they can be marketed to consumers.

There are four distinct stages in the life cycle of a brand. First, there is the introduction stage – where you are trying to get people to notice and recognize your brand. This is followed by the growth stage, where your brand is catching on and sales are starting to ramp up. Next, the maturity stage, where your target market knows your brand and seeks it out. The final stage is decline, when your brand begins to lose relevance in the marketplace and sales begin to fall off. Everyone who invents a product or a service dreams of reaching the pinnacle of the four stages: the maturity stage. On the flip side, everyone wants to avoid the steep descent of decline. Let’s talk about how marketing can help you achieve one and avoid the other.

Branding on the way up

Let’s say we have a product that we think will be a hit amongst consumers. For instance, let’s say we have invented a multi-purpose lawn and garden cutting tool that does the task of several other tools. It is sturdy enough to sever a tree limb, but will also trim shrubs and cut grass. For anyone who is taking care of their landscaping needs, this is an invaluable tool. You call the tool the ULC, which stands for the Ultimate Landscape Cutter. Getting people to recognize the ULC brand becomes critical to effective marketing. No one will buy the ULC if they don’t know what it is. We call this Awareness Marketing. It is very important that you can define your target market and showcase your brand to them during the introduction stage of your product. It is also vital to market to this group of people in a way that gets them to try the ULC. This is called First Time Sales Marketing. We may offer them a discount to purchase the ULC by a certain date or offer them a rebate. As sales increase and the ULC becomes more and more of a recognized brand, you’re heading towards the maturity stage of the branding life cycle.

The danger of maturity

When a brand has made it to the peak of maturity, there is a tendency to rest on the strength of the brand name and let go of marketing. However, there are some real dangers of the maturity stage. The bigger your brand name gets, the more the competition will nip at your heels. They will attempt to undercut you on price, or outdo you in terms of

service and quality. Beyond fending off competitors, you have to work at being on the cutting edge of your industry or your customer base that first bought your product will turn away from you. In other words, the ULC cannot just remain the same old ULC as it was first invented if you are going to remain relevant in your marketplace. This is where it is crucial that you listen to what your customers are saying about your brand. There are four reasons why your customers would give up on your brand: the price was too expensive for what they received, the quality was lacking compared to the competition, you did not meet their expectations on the time of delivery, and/or they had a bad customer service experience with someone in your company. Any of those four items will damage the reputation of your brand and leave you open to your competition who will fill the void.

If you do not change to meet the demands of your customers, your mature brand will begin to decline. Here is where marketing can help. When a brand is making a change that is demanded by customers, marketing needs to highlight this as a new and improved feature. Get the word out, even if you are fixing an obvious problem. Give your customers a reason to look at you with fresh eyes.

The other marketing fix for an old brand is to give it a new name. Does putting a new wrapper on an old product work? It can, especially if your marketing to a new demographic of people. Once again, let’s use the ULC as an example. The people who first bought the ULC, who were doing their own landscaping, are going to eventually get older and sell their house. They will move to a place where they don’t do the lawn work anymore. They have aged past your ULC. However, there is a younger group of people who are buying homes and need a tool like the ULC. You may want to consider re-branding at this point in the life cycle of your brand. Why? Changing the name to appeal to this younger demographic would make sense if they viewed the ULC as their parents’ brand, but not theirs. So you might call it the Green Hornet (since the younger set is inclined to earth friendliness and are also enamored with superhero movies.) In this way, you would start the life cycle over for your new brand, but would have the experience of years of mature product marketing.

So where does your brand fall in its life cycle? What do you need to do to market it to relevance with consumers? Dogs get old. Brands get old too, but with some smart marketing, you can make the old brand a new puppy.