I love brands and I love this most wonderful time of the year. Why? Because I love stories.
Christmas=story time
This is the time where stories reign supreme. The repetitive story of Christmas and Santa primarily. With various individual versions with the ones you love, sometimes sad, mostly merry I hope. One brand does its utmost to keep connected to this story with its ice cold hero product. Pretty impressive if you ask me in the coldest time of the year. But of course entire categories are trying to leverage this emotional connection. For example perfume.
Icons ignite stories
This year one of them is present in outdoor with something very simple and at the same time extremely powerful: their iconic bottle and their iconic bottle only: número cinq, number 5, Channel. I love this simplicity. Some people will say “this is just a product”, but see, that’s exactly the difference between normal products and icons such as the Coke and the Grolsch Swingtop bottle, the Nivea tin and the likes. They are so iconic that the simple appearance make stories springing to life. My Grolsch story for example includes my dads shed with those heavy crates where 16 beautiful swingtops sat. I couldn’t await until I could pop one open with him when I was of alcohol age. With Nivea this has the do with that very simple but recognizable scent out of that classic blue tin that my mother used when I had a sore spot on my skin. Everyone has their own stories.
What makes an icon?
1-They have to have been around for a while first of all. Of course marketers sometimes literally make statements such as “a new icon had arrived” but that’s actually something consumers decide over time.
2-Just being around is not enough though. Of course icons are sometimes more and sometimes a little less popular over time, but within a certain group of consumers there needs to be some form of constant likebility.
3-Don’t touch (too much). An icon doesn’t and more importantly shouldn’t change with every new brand manager that enters the team. Its design or format is so strong it doesn’t need change to get attention. Read this for the way hiphop icon Jay-Z does this?
2-Just being around is not enough though. Of course icons are sometimes more and sometimes a little less popular over time, but within a certain group of consumers there needs to be some form of constant likebility.
3-Don’t touch (too much). An icon doesn’t and more importantly shouldn’t change with every new brand manager that enters the team. Its design or format is so strong it doesn’t need change to get attention. Read this for the way hiphop icon Jay-Z does this?
How to keep an icon?
a. By not touching it (too much)
b. Evolve communication but don’t drastically change it. You’ll puzzle the people who love the icon and it’s a question mark if the new consumers you want to impress will be so loyal as the old ones
c. Tap into new consumer pools, but make sure they are not too far off from your current crowd, in line with the just said.
d. Smartly use media to get the iconic message to your target audience in a clever and innovative way, using the unparalleled and smart formats digital can provide nowadays with interactiveness, voice power, automatic video play using on the go functionality through mobile and tablet formats. The possibilities are endless and the you’ll boost the innovativeness of your brand, without ruining you icon.
So, let’s cherish our icons. Not because brands want to, but because they spark stories, our own stories. Merry Christmas!
willext 
