KFC temporarily giving up Finger Lickin’ Good, Dove switching its focus from beauty to health, and Codral swapping Soldier On for Get Back To What Matters Most: These were just some of the brand platform changes brands made at the height of COVID.
Four years since the pandemic began, though, brands are returning to their original slogans. Codral has reclaimed Soldier On with a slight tweak to Solider On Sooner, made possible if you Own Your Cold, a new lead line accompanying the new-but-old messaging.
And Finger Lickin’ Good is back – first resurrected in a 2021 campaign, splashed across a cap to buy from the merch store, and as a landing page on the KFC website, although the landing page’s name is ‘Fried Gold’. One international campaign launched this year sidestepped the tagline so as not to isolate office workers looking for a non-messy lunch.
Victoria Berry, head of strategy at Futurebrand, told Mediaweek: “As the world continues to change, we would expect to see brand campaigns and the supporting elements change along with them.
“Whether that’s in response to the fact that the pandemic is not as top of mind as it once was, or it’s just an opportunity for those brands to get back to basics, it’s not surprising to us that some of these brands would be evolving.
“What’s more interesting is the fact that they’re going back to the way things were before rather than evolving to something new.”
Colleen Ryan, partner at insights and research agency, TRA, added that “there is a difference between changing to something new versus returning to something used before.”
“People like things that are familiar. They make us feel safe and confident – so the value of familiarity gets dialled up during times of uncertainty. COVID ticked all the boxes of uncertainty but people are moving forward, and they are tiring of bad news.”
In the case of Dove returning to its focus on beauty, Ryan said “soap was a must have during a pandemic, but we value beauty more than simple cleanliness. With the threat of contagion fading people want to hear about the positive value of brands like Dove.” This year, Dove has leaned in to focusing on the 20th anniversary of its iconic Real Beauty campaign.
Emma Waterman, Futurebrand’s strategy director, added that “COVID was such an exceptional moment in time,” telling Mediaweek, “the actions that brands took at that moment were probably out of step with what they would ordinarily do.”
“There is definitely a trend of going back to the past – it’s not just with the brands, we have seen it with fashion, culture, and music, really drawing on those elements of nostalgia and familiarity.”
For Ryan, this nostalgia is part of the “risk and gain when brands ‘go back’.”
“Nostalgia is a strong pull so if you want to draw from the deep well of residual good will and positive brand memories then it is a powerful tool. However, nostalgia can also feed a sense of outdated or of another time, especially if that other time is not a positive territory for the category or the brand.”
Whether operating in a pandemic or not, Waterman said any risk in changing a brand’s slogan can be mitigated by “interrogating what it is that’s driving the change.”
“Is it about a change in cultural context or audience needs? Is it a change in the business? All of those are positive signals that a brand should indeed evolve and change, but where it becomes risky is if it’s just change for change’s sake.”
For Berry, having a solid understanding of a brand’s DNA – “who you are, what you want, and where you want to go as a brand” – is an “everlasting” advantage.
“If you’re able to identify and surface those, they can be really powerful strategic assets for brands.
“Being able to consistently apply those no matter what’s going on in the world or with competitors is a really powerful tool that brands draw on and rely on.”
–
Top image: Emma Waterman, Victoria Berry, Colleen Ryan