There’s a sort of enterprise story that has change into practically cliché: A legacy model is dealing with stagnating progress. Loyal prospects are ageing out, and new prospects aren’t taking their place. So the model reinvents itself to tug in a youthful section of the market, typically by borrowing concepts from cooler opponents to look extra “on-trend.”
However as an alternative of youthful and cooler, the rebrand comes off as insincere, stilted, or cringey. Worse, the model’s older, core prospects, who preferred the model because it was, are irritated by the adjustments. As a substitute of spurring new progress, the trouble drives off among the present prospects, leaving the model worse off than when it began.
That is the current story of The Bachelor tv franchise. After a two-year hiatus, ABC’s relationship present returned this summer time, having made adjustments that have been designed to attraction to a youthful viewers. The up to date Bachelor in Paradise cribbed from Love Island, its major rival within the competitive-dating-in-bathing-suits style, and a present beloved by the youthful audiences The Bachelor wished to draw.
The adjustments included an aggressive, quick-cut modifying type and the introduction of a money prize for the winners. Youthful shoppers weren’t drawn to the brand new format, however beforehand loyal followers panned the adjustments in on-line boards, suggesting the present ought to have included a seizure warning. Each the rankings and viewership numbers for this season hit historic lows.
Cracker Barrel’s recent woes additionally match this sample. Its “traditionalist” section of 65-plus diners was dwindling, main the model to strive attracting new, youthful prospects by updating the interiors and altering the emblem. It isn’t clear that the adjustments introduced in these youthful diners in vital numbers. However the adjustments did produce an exhaustively dissected backlash from its loyal buyer base, for whom, it turned out, nostalgia was a major a part of the Cracker Barrel attraction.
In the meantime, JCP’s main reinvention greater than a decade in the past was additionally pushed, partly, by making an attempt to draw youthful prospects with its elimination of deep reductions in favor of on a regular basis low pricing. However the transfer was much more profitable in driving away its older loyalists, who beloved trying to find these offers. Lands’ Finish tried to lure in youthful prospects when it launched a high-fashion line and edgier branding. As a substitute, they went from income of $9M to losses of practically $8M inside a yr.
The will to draw youthful prospects made sense for all these manufacturers. However they every fell into the identical lure: They assumed they might make adjustments to their choices and branding to draw new prospects with out having to fret about how their present prospects may react to these adjustments. The stewards of those manufacturers forgot that completely different individuals need various things from the manufacturers that serve them.
Whereas there are occasions when younger and outdated shoppers each need the identical issues from their manufacturers, the actual fact is, youthful prospects and older prospects additionally steadily need various things. Altering a model to make it extra interesting to youthful prospects could (or could not) attract these youthful prospects—however it could additionally unintentionally displease the older prospects who just like the model simply the way in which it’s.
In our e book, The Progress Dilemma, Managing Your Model When Totally different Prospects Need Totally different Issues (Harvard Enterprise Evaluation Press, 2025), we determine a couple of key methods manufacturers can use to handle the danger of battle between buyer segments as they develop. Listed here are three:
1. Create completely different areas for various audiences
One technique includes carving out separate areas inside a model—both conceptual or bodily—for various buyer segments. For instance, many manufacturers use a number of social media handles to speak to completely different segments. Timberland has completely different Instagram channels for its blue-collar employee section and its trend section. Starbucks has completely different retailer codecs catering to those that worth Starbucks as a spot to get a fast and handy espresso on-the-go (kiosk and drive-through areas), and those that worth Starbucks as a spot to work and socialize (its “third place” lounge areas).
Some manufacturers diffuse potential battle between prospects by creating separate “gated communities” throughout the model that cater to completely different buyer segments. Traditionally, Nike was nice at creating sport-specific communities that have been every distinct throughout the Nike model. Nike basketball prospects had completely different merchandise, apps, promoting, and experiences than Nike runners, tennis gamers, or sneakerheads.
Some manufacturers create a hierarchy amongst their buyer base, permitting a standing separation amongst prospects. It is a widespread path for a lot of trend manufacturers that serve segments with completely different worth sensitivities and design calls for. For instance, Armani serves completely different segments beneath the Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, and Armani Change sub-brands.
Bank card and monetary companies manufacturers typically create a hierarchy of consumers primarily based on internet value and spend to tailor services. Escalating ranges of service and advantages enable an organization like American Categorical to concurrently serve mass markets and elite prospects with out inflicting pressure between teams with very completely different expectations.
2. Concentrate on one viewers
Typically two segments are so divergent of their preferences or identities that they merely can’t be served nicely beneath the identical model. In these instances, manufacturers could choose to “fireplace” a buyer section—as Burberry did within the early 2000s after it inadvertently grew to become standard amongst soccer hooligans, by discontinuing merchandise standard amongst “chavs” and lowering the prominence of its iconic verify sample.
In different instances, they could develop a brand new model to serve a brand new section. Toyota is ready to efficiently serve a various set of consumers beneath a single model. However administration correctly realized that there have been limits to how far they might stretch the Toyota model and so launched Lexus to serve a set of consumers with a essentially completely different set of preferences.
Particularly within the instances of ideological battle between buyer segments (e.g., Bud Mild’s makes an attempt to be an obvious ally of the transgender neighborhood), the gulfs between buyer teams could merely be too huge to span with a single model. Some segments are finest served by completely different manufacturers.
3. Discover widespread floor
Maybe one of the best technique for manufacturers trying to develop into youthful segments is in searching for convergence in values and preferences throughout segments earlier than the model begins making adjustments. As a substitute of reorienting the model to attraction to the brand new, hoped-for prospects, manufacturers ought to first search for the Venn diagram intersection amongst 1) preferences of present prospects, 2) preferences of the brand new prospects, and three) the model’s picture and historical past. Progress methods that don’t fulfill all three standards are likely to fail.
Contemplate the outstanding current resurgence of one other legacy TV franchise. Regardless of being round for 20 years, Dancing with the Stars has been rising in current seasons, and attracting youthful viewers within the course of. DWTS didn’t pull this off by essentially altering what its longtime followers love in regards to the present, however as an alternative by innovating in areas round its profitable system.
These tangential enhancements have elevated the draw for brand spanking new, youthful followers with out stepping on the toes of loyalists. For its “stars,” DWTS has been more and more turning to celebrities related to youthful audiences, together with current Olympians, TikTok influencers, and actuality TV stars. It has additionally created further, meme-worthy social media content material, together with footage of the dancers coaching or goofing round backstage. This content material serves as a supplemental draw to youthful segments, with out messing with the on-stage magic that loyal watchers love.
Identical to the relationships in Bachelor in Paradise, the relationships amongst buyer segments could be nuanced and troublesome to handle. In contrast to the relationships in Bachelor in Paradise, the aim will not be most drama. Realizing the foundations of buyer relationship administration can enable manufacturers to draw prospects throughout generations with out experiencing the backlash.
