Is change good for your product?

There was a book a few years back titled, "If it ain't broke, break it,". I never read the book because I thought the title was very silly. I have never been a fan of change for the sake of change. Yet a lot of companies charge down that road, without a good vision about why they are making change and what they hope to accomplish in the end. In today's world we seem to have moved away from the mind set of our ancient ancestors where old age was revered and with age came the perception of wisdom and knowledge.

We now live in a culture where youth is almost a pathological obsession. From the hair coloring products to diets and onward, we see nothing but a desire to change our culture so we drop out objects simply because they are old and for no other reason. The corporate world is no different than any other person when it comes to this mindset. The older a product is, no matter how well it is performing, is seen as dull and in need of rehabilitation.

What makes me chuckle to myself as I write this is that if one looks back on some of the greatest marketing failures in history, the Edsel, Crystal Pepsi, New Coke, McLean Deluxe, they were all designed with the idea of reviving a supposedly stale brand. In each case, as we all know, they bombed, but they also demonstrated quite clearly that not only were the brands they were to replace quite strong, but that the leaders of the companies in question were very out of touch with their customers.

Now I am not advocating here for standing pat. Far from it! I do believe that a brand needs to be watched over vigorously and guarded like the crown jewels. Make changes when necessary. But change should not be implemented for the sake of change itself. Change should be done to improve the product and, to a larger degree the brand. .But making change out of fear that the product is some how faltering is counterproductive and a recipe for disaster.

Remember that as the Marketing and communications person we are responsible for protecting the product and brand from any threats and that may include putting a hand up and saying no when some internal party comes hard charging, determined to change the product out of fear of being passed by. That alone is no reason to react and remember that fear is the worst instigator of change!