How to Evolve Your Equity

This isn’t to say that equity should be discarded. From Oreo’s trademark blue to Coca-Cola’s contour bottle, these are powerful assets that put the consumer at ease. Their value lies in their familiarity. 

But established brands flush with equity have more room to work. Each product has more than one ingredient to play with. Tweaking a logo, refreshing a layout, or introducing a seasonal pun for a product name—these reinterpretations don’t compromise the brand’s identity. They demonstrate a capacity to evolve. 

The food and beverage landscape has become systematized and over-codified. With new challengers constantly emerging, category leaders must acknowledge that there’s no room for timidness. Success hinges on embracing tension and being brave enough to stretch equities in order to elevate them. 

Push + Pull = Progress

I’m all for copying, as it means you’re doing something right. But now is not the time to rest on what was. It’s time to drive toward what’s next.

This isn’t about standing out for the sake of it. It’s about recalibrating for the new status quo. How far can you push your assets before they become unrecognizable—and does that even matter? Could a small tweak deliver value on a global scale? To answer these questions, brands must first know what to protect and what to play with. 

Private label brands aren’t fringe players anymore; they’re providing a much-needed nudge to category leaders. Instead of suing these burgeoning competitors out of existence, legacy brands should take their emergence as a challenge to evolve, disrupt, and innovate.