Remember what has made you famous, then innovate. Like James Bond.
A marketing expert cited 007 as a case study during a brand workshop on Thursday.
In the face of stiff competition from the Bourne — Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon — series of films, the Bond franchise decided to innovate but not at the cost of the core brand, said David Taylor, focal speaker at the 21st edition of the Brand Conclave, organised by the CII, in association with The Telegraph.
“Brand it like Bond. They kept the central idea intact. Bond beats a baddie to save the world. The updates happened with stronger female characters, badder villains, more edge and darkness and higher-tech cars and gadgets,” said Taylor, the founder and group managing partner of the brandgym, a global team of brand strategy coaches working from bases in London, Amsterdam, Mexico City and Bangalore.
In the session billed as a “marketing masterclass”, Taylor said too much reliance on innovation could be a slippery path. “Companies can over-rely on innovation, diverting time, money and people from the core, leaving it vulnerable. A strong and healthy core creates the foundation for brand stretch,” he said.
He gave examples of several brands that have been successful in retaining and nurturing the core.
One of them was that of Titan watches. Taylor showed two ads, one from the 1990s and the other from 2020.
Titan’s signature tune, taken from Mozart’s Symphony 25, was integral to both advertisements. Both had a similar premise of romance.
“It is a great example of using sonic branding (a brand’s use of sound across all touchpoints),” said Taylor, who has worked with companies such as Disney, Cadbury’s, Unilever, Vodafone, Blockbuster and Mars.
“The world of marketing has changed dramatically in the past 4-5 years and India too is feeling the change,” Taylor, who has been named among the world’s top 50 leading marketing thinkers by the UK-headquartered Chartered Institute of Marketing, said in his opening address.
The venue, the auditorium of a star hotel off the EM Bypass, was packed with brand and marketing professionals from a wide variety of companies.
“While we see branding as an imperative in a rapidly globalising India, today more than ever before, where markets span continents, deeper understanding of the nuances of new product adoption, sharpened and effective messaging, marketing strategy and behavioural science for brands are necessary to create a competitive edge,” Shiv Siddhant Kaul, deputy chairman, CII eastern region, said at the outset of the programme.
