Brand turnaround

Revenue is a lagging indicator of brand

Revenue is always a lagging indicator of brand.

I spent last year as the Chief Brand Officer of Banana Republic leading its rebrand (including product design direction, styling, visual merchandising, website redesign and creative and art direction). Amid slashed annual forecast and stock drop, there was one bright stop in GAP, Inc. quarterly earnings report. In Q1 2022, Banana Republic’s comparable sales were up 24 percent.

To successfully reinvent your brand, you must rethink your approach to product, story, culture and customer. Brand rebounds often seem simple, logical, and inevitable when they are taught in business school courses and cited in the media. But few revival attempts are successful, and in the uncommon event that they do succeed, they usually take years or decades to yield significant results.

Notable brands, such as Apple, Gucci, and McDonald’s refreshed their marketing strategy and successfully renewed customer interest. Each of these companies succeeded by focusing on a new approach to product, story, culture, and customer. Powered by organizational and operational changes, these four elements have become the pillars of sustained brand turnarounds.

Start with the product