Brand management

Communities carry brands and can redefine them. What LEGO, Patagonia, Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch show about listening without losing your brand core.

78% of brands could vanish without being missed. Diller's staircase of meaning, self-congruity research and Byron Sharp's objections.

Brand management 2026. Part 3 of our series. On April 1, 2006, Afri-Cola gave up. It was no April Fool's joke. The brand went back to its old recipe. It had taken eight years. Its fans had known right away: this was no longer their cola. How could this happen? Three ways to lose trust Trust can be lost in different ways. Through the product. In 1998, a new owner took over the German cola brand Afri-Cola. The new owner changed the recipe and lowered the caffeine content. Loyal

Why New Coke failed despite winning blind tests, and how brands can change without becoming unrecognizable: meaning, self-similarity and trust.

An electronics store at Hamburg's main train station. An entire shelf full of cordless vacuums. Thirteen brands: established German names, young manufacturers from China, plus the store’s own private label. I try to see the shelf through the eyes of someone buying a cordless vacuum for the first time. The devices look alike. Slim wand, display on the handle, light on the nozzle. Which one do I take? You don’t buy a cordless vacuum every week, so your own experience doesn’t he