Branding in Action Sports Part 3 of 3

Part 3:

“Branding in Action Sports: Keeping Brands Relevant In Rapidly Changing Environments” 

How can brands remain relevant in a changing market when the avenues to communicate with consumers have never been more varied? Are there truly marketing “best practices” that companies ignore at their peril? Once a brand starts down that steep slide toward irrelevance, can anything be done to save it?

 

Let’s get into this last question.

The answer is absolutely yes.  Being relevant is how you save it.  If you are irrelevant, you are out of touch and need to find a way to get back in touch or hire someone who is in touch.  Whether you’re out of touch with the target audience, new technology, new marketing practices, or anything else.

We have seen brands like Quiksilver go from being a core brand that was deeply rooted in the surf culture and as relevant as any, to losing it’s edge and relevance.  Years later, they rebranded the company and brought it back to it’s roots, but relevant to that place and time.  Today, they are back on top as a leader.

The only constant is change, so any one and anything that doesn’t change with time is by definition left behind. Don’t forget about Branding in Action Sports Part 1 & 2.