Posted by: Hugh Burkitt, chief executive, The Marketing Society.
Listening to Alistair Darling yesterday droning on about the need to tighten our belts and not ask our bosses for big wage increases because we all have to fight inflation, I felt suddenly transported back to the 70’s. Any time now we will surely see once again grown men in flares and hairstyles that look like wigs, and I will be digging that purple shirt with the round collar out of the back of my wardrobe.
Modern life often seems to be changing with bewildering speed but sometimes it has just gone round in a circle and when you look at the brands of the last 50 years there are many which have remained ever present in our lives. Go to
www.50goldenbrands.com and as well as wallowing in nostalgia, you can tell us what you think about our selection of the Brand of the Year for the last 50 years. Life changes but Guinness, Barbie and Mini seem to sail serenely on.
Guinness will be 250 years old next year; Barbie and Mini – like the Society – will be 50.
The most important contribution of marketers to business is to create and maintain great brands and the best of these will outlast us all.
Marketers need to be acutely aware of the change all around them but the trick of a good brand is to keep it unchangingly popular.