The Old Ones are the Best…

For years, the communications industry has included a whole bunch of agencies claiming to specialise in New Product Development.

NPD was seen to be the lifeblood of business, constantly striving to adapt and develop a company’s offer to satisfy the needs of a restless and ever-changing group of consumers.

But in recession-riddled Europe, perhaps it’s time to look again.

During the good times, significant companies with significant brands were often the takeover targets of much bigger companies with much bigger brands. They, in turn, were frequently then bought by even larger companies with even larger brands…

And on the way, many great, much-loved, profitable brands – some with decades, even centuries of history – got left behind.

The new Mega Owners would invest in the Mega Brands and reduce support, withdraw support or even kill off what they saw as the Minnows. At best, in the world of portfolio management, they’d be confined forever to the side-pockets.

Yet here’s a thought.

Every European country has an aging population. And the balance of economic power is even more strongly biased than before in favour of those older consumers. What’s more, those consumers often have a strong affection for brands that were a part of their youth – brands that they are no longer told about or brands they can no longer find.

It is surely not too fanciful to believe that it’s likely to be easier and more profitable to reignite the passions for a brand that still evokes fond memories among consumers than it is to start from scratch, developing something entirely new.

NPD was the lifeblood of business in the boom. Maybe in these tougher times, OPD (Old Product Development) is the blood bank the commercial world can get its much needed transfusions from.

So come on, Marketing Directors everywhere. Look through your brand archives. Blow off the dust. Recognise that your future is shaped as much by the past as by the present – maybe more so.

To paraphrase the late, lamented Frank Carson: ‘The Old Ones are the best – it’s the way you sell’em!’.