What you can learn about brand turnarounds from Bonnie Tyler

If you were anything like me, you were on the dance floor in a feebly-decorated lunch room at the 8th grade school dance, frantically searching for the most popular person you thought would slow dance with you. There was a lot riding on that moment — your popularity, self-worth, a complete approval or rejection of your 8th grade fashion sense and daring-though-slightly-misguided-moussed-up-punk hair style. As turnarounds go, this one would make or break the rest of your life. It would catapult you from someone on the distant fringe of the cool kids to being one of them.

Even if you can’t relate, follow me on this journey a little longer.

Turnaround meant everything then. It was an even more important moment than Broken Wings by Mr. Mister.

But now, thirty-four years after Eclipsed was released, it’s still important. Let’s deconstruct these turnaround lyrics and apply them to a modern brand management context. Sure, that makes sense.

The song starts off with,

For Bonnie, this is clearly a statement about how brand sales may be slowing after a long period of expansion. While the brand may have gotten used to a relatively loyal buyer base, newer competition has probably entered the category and is attracting once-loyal consumers. They’re coming around less and less, making the brand wonder how it has lost relevance in recent periods.

Then,

Brand momentum is a powerful thing. When you have it, you experience tailwinds with consumers seeking out your brand, with retailers who stock and display your brand more and you enjoy a strong advantage over your competitors.

But when momentum shifts to a competitor, we might find ourselves analyzing all of the data for far too long, not being able to or willing to make a strategic change fast enough. Clinging to outdated campaigns or business strategies for too long leads to a chronic cycle of defeatism affecting internal morale and a company’s belief in its ability to win again. I think that’s what Bonnie meant by that line. It’s a downer line, no doubt.

Again, Bonnie is reminiscing about earlier, better times for the brand. When they were unchallenged in the marketplace, and the role of marketing was simple — turn it on and increase sales. But now that the media and competitive landscapes are more complex, brands can either choose to cling to outdated modes, measuring success against earlier times; or they can make a choice to stop the unhelpful rhetoric and start competing for the future. And you do that by reassessing your business model, operational model, product innovation, distribution strategy, communication strategy, etc.

There is no doubt, marketers face challenges that are more intense today — and the pace of change is faster than it’s ever been, but slower than it will be in the future. In these challenging times, what do you hang on to? Remember, the “bright eyes” part of this suggests that — even though there’s more competition for attention, there are also more people connected to media than ever. Yes, communication strategies have become more complex. But the fundamentals of good brand marketing and exceptionally compelling creative can change a brand’s trajectory and return it to growth.

What Bonnie is urging here is that brands work to understand the market dynamics effecting their share change, then make a conscious decision to break from any legacy thinking or heritage that’s holding them back. Blockbuster Video, for example, needed to break with a historic belief in late fees as an important contributor to overall revenue. While it may have been true at one time, the market forces were moving towards a system that eliminated late fees through subscription services. Bonnie’s saying that every now and then, you have to fall apart — literally look at the components of your overall model and ensure that you are not holding too tight to ideas that consumers are moving away from.

It’s clear this idea of falling apart holds great value since Bonnie repeats it. What aspect of your brand merits “falling apart?” With Volvo cars it appears to be gas engines. The brand recently announced all 2019 consumer Volvos will be electrified — meaning either full electric or plug-in electric. Volvo cars has had declining US sales for years. This is both a very difficult and costly decision, but also very bold and long-term. This “falling apart” will undoubtedly hurt Volvo’s sales for the next 18 months. But long-term, this “falling apart” will set Volvo up to be a strong player in electric vehicles (selling similar numbers to Tesla), and also setting themselves up for the future of autonomous driving cars.

There are a lot more lyrics to the song. But they communicate more about customer loyalty programs than brand turnarounds. And in 8th grade, all I really understood were the first verses — which still make a good case for turnaround thinking for brands of all shapes, sizes and market positions, to ensure future market success.

Happy Eclipse.

And welcome to the birth of the BBDO MPLS agency blog.

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BY PAUL SCHMIDT, MANAGING DIRECTOR