There are certain iconic brands from my 80's childhood that just stick in my mind. If I asked you to sing the jingle for DoubleMint or Big Red gum, could you? What about Zest? Do you still remember the packaging of V05 Hot Oil?
Zestfully Clean . . . A Brand Refresh
Today, we are privileged to speak with a classically trained marketer (General Mills, Unilever) who brings iconic brands back to popularity. Nina Riley is the Vice President of Marketing for High Ridge Brands, including Zest, Coast, White Rain, V05 and Rave. Here on Brand Fast-Trackers, we've spoken with big brand marketers and niche brand marketers, we've spoken with venture capitalists/lawyers/developers, but I can't think of a show where we've talked about how to refresh a brand. 

High Ridge is owned by private equity firm Brynwood Partners. They specialize in buying iconic brands that have been neglected under bigger brand portfolios for years and flipping them. They've done this with Balance Bar, Sun Country Food and others.

As a marketer, what prepares you to thrive in a lean, private-equity owned brand? For Nina, her experience founding her own company is key to this lean culture, but more than that, successful brand refreshes requires three core principles:

You must have an inherent curiousity
You have to know where a brand comes from and what its heritage is
You have to know to whom that heritage/brand stance will appeal

For High Ridge, their brands appeal mostly to the value consumers, so that goes into all of their initiatives. Nina recommends to not be afraid of really delving into the brand heritage. With V05, she was able to discover that the "5" actually stood for five essential oils in the formula. Turns out that v05 was using most of these before they became key ingredients in other popular hair products.
Overall, this was a really insightful discussion and one I think you will enjoy:


[Lead Image via High Ridge Brands]