Brands need to take more risks and spend less time worrying about their image, because consumers don’t care what they stand for, writes Mark Ritson in a recent Marketing Week article (https://www.marketingweek.com/mark-ritson-brand-image-matters-little). He argues that damaging brand image is rarely harmful, because it matters so little.
He cites a number of brands that have successfully taken risks in recent years, including ice-cream brand Ben & Jerry’s, which has started manufacturing dog food treats, and Porsche’s decision to launch Cayenne in 2002. The Cayenne, writes Ritson, “was about as far as you could get from the company’s heritage”, which was based on “sports cars and performance”. However, far from damaging the brand, the Cayenne has “emerged as the company’s greatest single commercial achievement”...
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