FutureBrand news, views & insights: May 2025
For consistency’s sake, make change
A big change can help your brand be consistent.
It sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s true.
One the one hand, we know from a decade of data via the FutureBrand Index that ‘Consistency’ and ‘Seamlessness’ play pivotal roles in building brands and growing stronger brand perceptions.
So it is that the brands with the strongest perceptions don’t wear out, they wear in. (Just as Christina urged those AFLW and WBBL athletes and their managers in last month’s newsletter. “Just do it. And keep doing it.”)
But on the other hand, we also know that consistency can wear thin if your brand lacks depth of meaning and distinction. It can become repetitive ad nauseam, such that high awareness becomes a smokescreen for low salience. And once the smoke clears, you’re more than likely left with a lower return on your marketing investment.
So, how can change help your brand be more consistent?
What appears to be an oxymoron in fact reveals an intriguing correlation.
Make one big change, for once and for all, and you’ll discover how much easier it is to be consistent.
Otherwise, you’ll find yourself making lots of little changes, time and again. Which in turn will make it all the more difficult to maintain consistency as you continually tweak and tinker.
I understand that business and brand leaders sometimes fear change:
‘What if we change too much?’
But the opposite poses an equally significant risk:
‘What if change too little and no-one even notices?’
Change once and for all. Not once and again.
When brands mean business
We’re often asked to comment on brands, whether corporate or consumer brands, from one sector to another.
While every brand ought to be distinctive, there are universal lessons to be applied, here are three perspectives I thought useful to share.
Firstly, if you want to know who cares about your rebrand, or more specifically how to make people care, read this op-ed by our GM Christina for AdNews.
TLDR?
“A rebrand must be a promise of tangible value that customers can experience for real. Anything less is just noise. And that’ll quickly drown out when the next company rebrand rolls around.”
Alternatively, there’s very likely something for your own brand to learn from the trials and tribulations of Telsa, as written by our Strategy Director Emma. Here’s the topline summary:
1. Your brand is your business
2. Beware the say-do gap
3. The price of not investing in brand
Or, it could be the emotional connection that your brand is missing?
In which case, dive into this long read on the world of beauty published by Little Black Book, featuring our Head of Strategy Victoria and brand strategist Sarah.
"It really is around that feel-good moment. Customers are wanting to engage with brands and retailers that make them feel good when they walk in, and make them feel even better when they walk out.”
Know your brand inside out
Since the launch of the Financial Services Sector Study a few weeks ago, there has been a flurry of downloads and discussions about what it is that distinguishes finance brands.
It has also led us to a series of presentations exclusively to our clients in the finance sector, sharing insights and implications for their own brands and businesses.
Here’s a sneak peak from one of those presentations…
In summary, the financial services businesses with the strongest brand perceptions over-index on the correlation between strong workplace reputation and overall brand performance. That said, that’s not necessarily true for all financial services brands. In fact, quite the opposite, they are below-average as a sector when it comes to people wanting to ‘work for’ them.
It’s both an important insight and a timely reminder. Competitive advantage is built from the inside out: don’t forget to invest in your own employer brand too.
Internship program enters third year
Just launched is the third year of our internship program, offering regional and rural students a 5-week paid immersive experience in Brand Strategy, Identity and Experience.
Josh and Sarah visited Geelong to outline the program to students, share stories and open applications.
Exclusively designed for regional and rural students, our internship program is founded in an understanding that diversity plays a pivotal role in fostering creativity and a belief that we can improve the creative industry by extending the pathways for more diverse emerging talent.
That’s why we offer paid internships exclusively to students from regional and rural areas, including paid travel and accommodation, in order to help remove the hurdles – geographical, financial, and more. That way, we can help make it easier for those people to find their way into our industry.
In the words of Sara, one of our interns from our second year:
…suffice to say I’m always excited to see how much further afield our regional internship program can take us. And, more importantly, how much further it can take our interns.
That’s it for another month of news, views and insights.
For me, the best thing about this email newsletter format is that you can simply reply if you have questions or comments. Please feel free to do so, I’m always happy to follow-up with more detail on any of the stories I share, especially if that can help you build your own brand and business. Hit ‘Reply’, speak soon.