How legacy CPG brands are using storytelling to stay relevant

If consumers craved ultra-clean, minimalist branded-ness in the mid-2010s, they’re looking for the opposite today: Brands that are bold, expressive, and altogether more human.

This shift has created a particular set of challenges for legacy CPG brands. Brands in this category have been so ubiquitous for so long that their names have become monolithic.

While they may be the number one go-to in their category, the polish that comes with that reputation doesn’t exactly lend itself to boldness and humanity in the way that the originality of smaller, less-established brands does.

To stay relevant in the current landscape, legacy CPGs need to pull back the curtain and invite consumers to be a part of their legacy. The best way of doing that? Through storytelling.

People who love a brand’s story are 55% more likely to buy a product in the future. Of those people, 44% will share the brand’s story, and 15% will buy a product immediately. 

While most legacy CPGs have a well-defined brand story, the primary purpose of that story tends to be to chronicle their past. For today’s consumer to fall in love with your brand’s story, you need to refine it in a way that positions it firmly in the present but still leverages the power of that legacy.

TLDR; Legacy brands need to honor their heritage—not be defined by it.

Your history is a valuable asset. Share stories of your brand’s origins, but don’t dwell on them. Focus on how your heritage informs your present and future by identifying the core values that have guided your brand throughout its history and demonstrating how they remain relevant today.

Of course, you also need to inject bold personality. For legacy brands, this is the tricky part. However, in our experience, we’ve identified two ways of accomplishing this.

To bring out personality, start with people. All too often, consumers know legacy CPGs by name and name alone. By showcasing the people behind your brand—from the farmers who grow your ingredients to the employees who work in your factories—you can humanize your brand by helping consumers literally put face(s) to name.

When most consumers think of cranberry juice, for example, they think of a bottle of Ocean Spray. To deepen Ocean Spray’s connection with modern consumers, we revamped its website to allow cranberry fans to experience Ocean Spray beyond its product. We incorporated dedicated farmer pages that showcase the stories, expertise, and history of the humans behind the brand.

Frame your brand values in a new context or give them a modern twist. A different backdrop creates an opportunity for you to incorporate a bold new take on the core values that have guided your brand throughout its history. This way, you leverage familiarity in a way that appeals to longtime consumers while also introducing your brand in a way that stands out to a new generation.

When we supported Jägermeister with the creation and launch of a new digital ecosystem, we were inspired by how their brand has evolved. Originally Jägermeister was known as a drink enjoyed among hunters to celebrate their success. While the brand has long since outgrown the context of that origin story, celebration remains at its heart. 

Today, Jägermeister is synonymous with occasion and the human desire to capture the moment. This observation informed our work’s guiding principles—Lively, Unapologetic, Sociable, and Bold—which we integrated throughout the new site to appeal to a new generation of memory-makers.

Brand storytelling is as much a creative effort as a strategic one—never more so than in the digital age. By taking advantage of data-driven insights in AI and other tools for monitoring consumer behavior, you empower your brand to take a more targeted, more effective approach to storytelling.

For legacy CPGs, this capability is especially important because you’re seeking to uncover the nuances of who your audience is and how they have evolved.

During our partnership with Hidden Valley Ranch, for example, BASIC/DEPT® helped uncover the group representing the brand’s biggest champions: The ranch fandom. This was an especially important revelation because, in the internet age, Hidden Valley’s most loyal audience had evolved into a group that doesn’t just like ranch, they love it—so much that it’s a part of their identities. 

To ensure that the Hidden Valley brand resonated directly with this audience, our team worked alongside Hidden Valley’s internal creative team to tailor every element of their creative expression—including content direction and tone of voice—to match the spirited, quirky personality of the online ranch fandom.

Like any novel or film, a good brand story includes a conflict, a resolution, and a protagonist. Usually, the protagonist is the brand because the brand is responsible for the product that provides the resolution and ultimately brings about the “happily ever after.”

A great brand story, however, is bold enough to challenge the audience to become the protagonist, leaving the “happily ever after” up to them.

For legacy CPGs, making your audience a part of your brand’s story is crucial to staying relevant. The goal is to create engagement and foster community by inviting your audience to write your brand’s next chapter.

The best way of accomplishing this? Leveraging the power of social media.

In this case, Johnnie Walker offers a great example with their “Footsteps of Progress” campaign, which they created to support women in Eastern Europe.

Despite the prevalence of female whiskey drinkers in Eastern Europe, the region’s whiskey adverts are almost entirely catered towards men. Realizing that this disparity reflected the deep-rooted perception of whiskey as part of the “man’s world,” Johnnie Walker embarked on a mission to change this perception by highlighting female stories.

With “Footsteps of Progress,” we helped connect Johnnie Walker’s mission to “Keep Walking,” the brand’s 120+ year-long commitment to progress. Leveraging AR experiences and influencer partnerships, we passed the mic to real-life women—teachers, moms, inventors, politicians, even rock stars—and invited them to share their stories as a way of sparking conversations about gender roles and inspiring societal progress. 

In the end, “Footsteps of Progress” evolved from a campaign into a movement. By using the power of storytelling to connect members of Johnnie Walker’s audience with the brand, we were equally excited and proud to witness the birth of a community of female role models.

Ultimately, for legacy CPG brands, staying relevant is about more than just selling a product. It’s about connecting with consumers on a human level, understanding their evolving needs and desires, and creating a compelling story that speaks directly to their audience’s hearts and minds.

By using the power of storytelling to pull back the curtain and reveal their underlying humanity,  legacy CPGs can forge deeper connections with modern consumers and ensure that their legacy continues to inspire for generations to come.