THE THREE PRONG STRATEGY OF FUTURE TRANSFORMATION
EXCLUSIVELY FOR REALISTIC LUXURY BRANDS
My last piece that discussed “Head of Future Transformation” exposed our current state of stagnancy across luxury branding and positioning.
Hate to repeat the rhetoric of pessimism that is evidently clouded across creative thinking and specially consumer centric thought process. Just to recap, my point of view is; that these so-called luxury brands are stuck in the marketing jargons of the past decade and have failed miserably to innovate. Additionally, how branding & communication strategies have lagged far behind futuristic consumer expectations who suffered obsolete marketing techniques repeatedly.
I strongly believe that ideas, strategies, concepts etc. could be amazing. But it all boils down to how we actually implement them. Here is a 3-prong strategy that should lead us to transformation of futuristic luxury brand strategy, but of course it all depends on how well we implement and execute it.
1- BRAND’S FUTURISTIC EVALUATION
Get to know the current status of the brand and to what extent it is ready for the future, especially with the swift changes in the luxury industry. This is as exciting as the challenging. Reason being that you as brand owner or custodian should not be involved at this stage. The best way is to obtain assistance from a modern UpToDate luxury branding consultant or image strategist. This professional must have the capacity to share views whilst also rendering a critical analysis of the brand. The brand owner should be very clear and have a reasoning on each pointer as to why or why not your brand is luxe future savvy. This should include a brand parity breakdown within the same or similar luxury industry. The futuristic evaluation will reidentify the tasteful target market and its shift in terms of personality traits such as: education, travel, information exposure, financial source, and life cycle. At the end, revisiting the entire brand book and ticking all checkpoints as how modern and futuristically equipped each one is.
2- TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY GUIDELINES
Once we have progressed from the first phase, we advance to the strategy phase where the luxury brand transformation is devised. At this stage, involvement of the brand owner/ custodian is pivotal. No one can translate the brand ethos better than the brand owner/creator. Strategy is formulated in the most pragmatic manner so that the transformation is engineered in such a manner that change is perceived as brand futuristic shift rather than an average and ordinary brand shift. For my projects, I have created a detailed guidebook that includes sessions with top management, implementation stages, change management protocols, execution process, transformation stages, timelines, and budgeting etc. The strategy guidelines are subject to the kind of brand and business we are in. The entire process is planned in a way as if we are changing tracks of the train without reducing its speed.
3- TRANSFORMATION IMPLEMENTATION & EXECUTION
This surely is a show time phase, where all evaluations, planning, and strategy transforms into reality. A symphony of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness. From top to middle and lower, teams must be aligned to embrace the transformational change towards the now attainable future. Additionally, your target audience, current and potential customers are the core component of this exciting futurists transition. A luxury brand should not be reluctant to shift its customer profile if the brand image is being perceived outdated in lieu of its target audience. Futuristic luxury brands always look for challenging customer profile that thrashes creative boundaries and keep the brand alive and vibrant. The transformation to future should echo the same feel and sense within your internal and external customers.
This three-prong strategy must be backed by Post Transformation Analysis and a further recommendation report.
Post Transformation Analysis is a summary of the brand’s futuristic capacity in the form of Brand’s White Paper. White paper report of the brand will be elaborating, detailing, and explaining the rationale of transformation. This will include your brand’s potential and milestones that should be achieved after the completion of the transformation.
A Recommendation Report will further elaborate critical steps that need to be taken by the luxury brand in order to get ready for the next phase of futuristic transformation as it’s a continuous process like learning.
As a futuristic luxury brand, we can’t be stagnant at any point, we must learn from the past, analyze and reflect on the present, predict and preempt the FUTURE.
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