Brand DNA

The theory of evolution is arguably one of the most important ideas in human history to date. It's a beautiful, all-encompassing theory that is able to explain an exceptionally broad range of natural behaviours. It's such a successful idea that its principles are often applied beyond biology into the realms of economics, for example. So I began to think about whether these same principles could be applied to explain the evolution of a successful brand?

A successful gene is one that replicates through the generations and it doesn't take much to extend this idea to the world of brands in the context of, say, capitalism. For a brand to be successful, the messaging DNA that makes it unique needs to have adapted to its consumer environment so that it can replicate as much as possible. For a brand to survive and win, it must work successfully with its environment and, at the same time, beat off competition, especially from other rival brands competing for the same consumer resources.

If a brand is well-adapted, it will replicate its core messages through as many people as possible. However, just as successful genes 'aim' to be as efficient as possible, brands do not want to avoid wasting energy targeting the wrong consumers. In nature, a predator will often attack the nearest and most vulnerable prey because it is simply the easiest source of energy to convert. Similarly, successful brands employ targeting strategies, communicating with audiences that are more susceptible to engaging with them and repeating the core messages of their DNA. Because of this, brands have adapted different survival strategies for different purposes and do not always go down the 'big billboard advertising' route, but instead engage more targeted strategies such as PR, social media and the aptly named viral marketing.

Of course, as soon as a brand's messaging DNA is replicated, whether through a piece of composed communication or the subsequent buzz and word-of-mouth, it begins to mutate – much faster than what we see in nature. This 'Chinese whispers' effect that lowers copy-fidelity can be very concerning for a brand and its DNA because, once the message has passed through a considerable number of consumers, it could have mutated into an entirely different species altogether, losing the focus of the original message.

To combat this, modern brands have continued to evolve and, with environmental changes such as social media, the most well-adapted are beginning to practice a kind of brand eugenics to control their messages further down the replication line. Rather than bring their brand into the world through a piece of communication and then leave it be, experts now influence messages on an ongoing basis, particularly through engaging online audiences and adjusting messages through reciprocal feedback. And of course, just as in nature, some brands will benefit from co-operating with other brands, for example in the case of event sponsorship. Of course, these are far from acts of altruism and even in these instances of mutual benefit, a well-adapted brand will always seek to maximise its own advantage.

Of course, successful marketing will spread where it is well received and, because of this, successful brands, like successful genes, will have longevity. The ability to spread and be passed on is more important than the length of an individual brand awareness campaign in itself – particular genes die within their bodily habitats but their copies continue to communicate on their behalf. So although some marketing campaigns will always achieve short-term success, brand species themselves continue to be sustained through long-term strategies.