If there’s one thing you can count on in marketing, it’s this:
Things change.
Cultural norms shift. Trends fade. World events shake things up. Buying power passes from one generation to the next.
As that change inevitably comes, there are brands that ride the waves for the long-term, rolling with every cultural punch (like Taco Bell)…
And then there are brands that reach towering heights and then come crashing down, their final wave a tsunami that decimates them.
Like Blockbuster—once the titan of movie rentals, now completely dethroned by their lack of vision (they rejected video streaming technology before Netflix hit the scene). Or Beanie Babies—once a cult-like craze, now the stuff of history podcasts. Or Borders Bookstores, swallowed whole by Amazon.
But hold up—it’s not just soar or crash. There’s a third category: brands that reach the edge of the tsunami, look over that cliff-sized fall, and manage to bounce back. The brands who do something drastic when things simply no longer work.
Those are the brands we want to talk about today. With two examples of companies that mastered the art of the comeback in very different ways. Here’s what happened and what we think you can learn from them.
Lego: innovation with boundaries
Touted by some as the “greatest turnaround in corporate history,” Lego’s a true tsunami comeback story. In 2003, after decades of domination in the toy industry, they were hanging off that cliff edge—$800 million in debt with sales dropping 30% year-over-year.
And things were about to get even worse.
Because at first, Lego dug their grave deeper. They tried to diversify—adding jewelry, clothes, and theme parks to their portfolio (and discovering that actually nobody wanted a Lego necklace). Deeper and deeper into debt and despair they went.
And then: the turning point.
New leadership took the helm, cut the new products that were doing nothing for them, shortened development timelines, and took the company back to what they are best at: Legos. Classics like Space Legos, tie-ins like Star Wars, and—importantly—new Lego worlds like ninjas, bakery, and riding camp, based on deep research into the playing habits of kids.
By 2015, Lego was up $5.2 billion in revenue. A far cry from the lows of 2003.
So what can we learn from the fall and rise of this toy industry giant? One answer is clear: innovation doesn’t have to mean branching out to new spaces and new products. There are ways to branch out successfully (see Taco Bell’s retirement community), but in general, nobody wants Lego jewelry or Bank of America spatulas or Geico tampons.
The stronger innovation opportunity is the creativity that happens within the things you already excel at. Lego is best at Legos—and the innovation that worked for them was adding new kinds of Legos, new ways to play with them, and new audiences they would appeal to (namely, girls!).
Also: research, research, research. Lego made their comeback because they committed to finding out what kids wanted instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck.
Birkenstock: the power of sticking to your guns
Since approximately forever, Birkenstock has been about one thing: comfort. Shoes that evenly distributed weight, felt good to wear, and functioned well for all sorts of activities—from gardening to camping and beyond.
This gained them a good deal of customer loyalty, but it wasn’t putting them on the fashion industry’s radar.
Enter Gen Z, who sees fashion differently and has the online platforms to shout their perspectives from the proverbial rooftops. For Gen Z, fashion is still creative. Still fun. Still cutting edge in some ways. But it’s also about authenticity, comfort, and lifestyle.
Function as well as beauty.
Thus, without any real effort on the part of the brand, suddenly Birkenstock found itself at the center of a cultural moment, with clogs gracing celebrity feet and featured on popular fashion TikToks.
Unlike Lego, the story of Birkenstock isn’t about reinvention or making intentional changes. It’s about knowing your brand purpose and sticking to it for the long term. It’s about the cultural moment that finds you when you don’t try to chase culture, but rather let it come to you.
And that brings me to our point…
A common theme: know thy brand
Both of these massive success stories have one big thing in common: their success hinges on them being themselves.
For Lego, it was ditching all the extras and doing what they do best: Legos. For Birkenstock, it was sticking to their guns no matter how often the fashion industry called them ugly along the way.
Which makes the big takeaway here this: know your brand and always stick with it. Lots of things can change over time, but your core brand mission, your best product, the heart of what you are building…you need to know it well and nurture it long-term.
And if you’re figuring out your brand right now? Well, that’s something we can help with. Reach out anytime.
