From sickness to good health - the Lucozade story

What’s the actual, real-world, hard-nosed, sales value of a brand?

The next time you're asked that question – or the next time anyone expresses the opinion that you can't attribute financial value to a brand – ask them to sit down, prick up their ears, and enjoy a nice glass of Lucozade.

If, like me, you’re a child of a bygone era, you’ll probably remember Lucozade for what it once was; an ever-present companion at the bedside of recovering patients in hospital wards up and down the country. In fact, you could barely sneeze before the familiar rustle of the cellophane wrapper was heard.
 
Energising the brand
Then, in 1983, things changed. The clever brains at Ogilvy & Mather took up the challenge of rebranding the drink. With the expert aid of psychologist Roy Langmaid, they recognised that the brand could become far more valuable if it moved away from illness and towards energy and sports.¹ 

So Lucozade became the ‘replacer of lost energy’, rather than the ‘aider of recovery’. Daley Thompson was brought on board to personify this change of emphasis, a new logo was unveiled and the outdated cellophane was ditched in favour of more modern plastic packaging.

The results were pretty startling. Between 1984 and 1989, the value of UK sales shot up by almost £75 million² and a host of new flavours and products were launched.

These incredible figures have shown no sign of settling down in the intervening years. Lucozade enjoyed over 10% year-on-year growth throughout the 90s and well into this century. In fact, a 2004 report by Superbrands showed that the brand commanded a 17% value share of the energy drink category and was the UK’s leading sports drink.³
 
Same product, new brand, new success
The really clever thing about all of this is that, whilst new flavours have been introduced, the brand’s central product remained unchanged. It was the brand itself that became something new. Aligned to sporting events and sports stars, it became a far more dynamic, far more appealing proposition; and became a far more valuable income stream for its producer, GlaxoSmithKline.

And that’s the moral of the story. Done properly, a rebrand is much, much more than a new ‘set of clothes’ or a cleverly drawn logo. It’s actually an exercise in redefining the profitability of a business. Or, particularly in the case of Lucozade, re-energising the profitability of a business.
 

¹ Wikipedia
² funky-facts.blogspot.com
³ www.brandrepublic.com/News/232378/Superbrands-case-studies-Lucozade/
 
Words – Phil Robinson
Pictures – Courtesy of Google Images