AI Will Not Kill Brands. It Will Ignore Weak Ones.
Most businesses don’t suddenly lose relevance
The drift happens gradually.
… Yes we all know it’s Crunchie Friday!
A proposition that once felt clear becomes diluted. A business that once knew exactly who it was starts reacting instead of leading. Usually with good intentions.
Growth slows.
Markets tighten.
Competitors become louder.
Pressure builds internally.
And slowly, complexity creeps in.
More products.
More messaging.
More channels.
More tactical activity.
But clarity rarely improves through addition.
In fact, businesses often dilute the very thing customers valued in the first place.
Drift Is Commercially Expensive
The impact is not always obvious immediately.
But eventually it appears in the numbers:
✦ acquisition costs rise
✦ conversion weakens
✦ teams become fragmented
✦ customer confidence drops
✦ marketing becomes less efficient
Because customers are no longer clear what role the brand plays in their lives.
And unclear businesses become expensive businesses.
The Strongest Brands Stay True While They Evolve
One thing I’ve learned working across growth businesses is that strong brands evolve carefully.
They modernise.
They adapt to changing behaviour.
They scale commercially.
But they protect the emotional reason customers chose them in the first place.
At Greggs, for example, we transformed the business from a traditional high street baker into the UK’s leading food-on-the-go chain. The retail formats changed, the proposition evolved and the product range became increasingly aligned to convenience-led lifestyles.
But despite all that transformation, Greggs never lost its core brand essence or emotional pull.
It still stood for:
“irresistible snacks.”
Customers felt the business had evolved with them, not abandoned them.
I’ve seen the same principle in healthcare.
At HSFC, (one of UK’s oldest IVF clinics) the fertility market was becoming increasingly crowded and competitive. Many clinics positioned themselves around success rates, technology and clinical capability.
Important factors — but emotionally very similar.
Still No 1 The opportunity was to build a much clearer emotional and commercial role in the market:
becoming recognised as the specialists for couples facing complex fertility and pregnancy challenges.
Not just another IVF clinic.
A trusted expert for people needing reassurance, specialist expertise and hope during emotionally difficult journeys.
That positioning worked because it reflected genuine customer anxieties and unmet emotional needs rather than generic category messaging.
Strong brands scale.
Weak brands react.
Growth Pressure Creates Strategic Drift
One of the biggest dangers in difficult markets is reactive leadership.
Businesses start watching competitors too closely. They chase trends, overload propositions and gradually lose focus.
I see this particularly in businesses trying to scale quickly. The pressure to deliver short-term performance often shifts attention away from the customer and towards tactical activity.
That creates:
✦ diluted positioning
✦ fragmented communication
✦ tactical discounting
✦ inconsistent customer experience
Eventually customers stop feeling connected to the brand.
And once emotional connection weakens, growth becomes much harder and more expensive to sustain.
Community Protects Relevance
The businesses performing strongest today stay close to customers.
Not just through dashboards and performance reports.
Through genuine understanding of the people they serve.
That matters more than ever now trust in social channels is weakening. Consumers are becoming increasingly sceptical of polished marketing, paid influence and algorithm-driven noise.
People trust people more than platforms.
Which is why community is becoming such an important commercial asset.
Strong communities help businesses:
✦ strengthen loyalty
✦ improve retention
✦ reduce acquisition pressure
✦ stay culturally relevant
✦ protect long-term growth
I’ve seen this first-hand across healthcare, hospitality and consumer brands. Businesses that stay emotionally connected to customers make better commercial decisions over time.
Positioning Is Not A Workshop Exercise
This is where many businesses misunderstand brand strategy.
Positioning is not simply a statement or campaign.