What Can Brand Managers Learn From the Aztecs?

This week I’ve been obsessively consuming the podcast “You’re Dead to Me”, from Joan of Arc to Justinian and Theodora, LGBTQ History to Mansa Musa. 

My brain loves to draw connections and parallels, find patterns and discern differences, which is what makes me an excellent researcher and also drives my husband crazy. 

So as I devoured the episode on the Aztecs this morning I began to see connections with my world. 

I’m sure you’re thinking there’s no possible connection to our world. After all the Aztecs are known for sacrifices and pyramids. And the (human) sacrifices were to appease the gods, something we definitely don’t need to do in the 2022 marketing world. 

But after a particularly bad famine, the Aztecs began to practise ritual wars, known as Flower Wars. In essence, they had an agreement with a reasonably nearby enemy to conduct these ceremonial wars, where the purpose was not to kill enemy soldiers but to capture them. Each side would take enough captives for their sacrifices and the war would end. 

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BRANDING?

I believe that without a clear focus – and occasional strategic sacrifice – a brand can easily lose its way, diluting its brand essence, alienating core consumers, putting off prospects because they don’t know what the brand is about and reducing the likelihood of being able to charge a premium. Consumers want brands they believe in. We keep hearing over and over and over that they want brands that are driven by values, especially values that align with their own self-image.

The only way a brand can keep this clear focus is with strategic sacrifices along the way. Not tactical sacrifices without a bigger vision because something isn’t working, I’m talking about having a ritual war on your brand, a Flower War so to speak. 

“The essence of strategy is sacrifice.” David Ogilvy

Let’s start with brand extensions.

They sound great in principle – we’ve got a strong brand that people love; let’s get more shelf space, so let’s add a flavour variant. Of course, we know that brand and line extensions can work, but these only work when the brand’s unique associations are maintained and nurtured through the extension. 

Aztec Flower War: look at your brand and product portfolio and determine whether each part of the whole supports the bigger brand strategy. Do any products need to be sacrificed? Do they need to be brought back in line with the strategic vision, whether that’s in marketing, branding, packaging, pricing, promotions or where they’re being sold?

What about packaging?

The consumer world is so competitive that we often try to do too much with our packaging. Packaging has an important role to play. Aside from protecting your product, it needs to grab attention and give key product information so that in the split second that consumers stand at the shelf, they choose your product. In our experience testing packaging designs, brands try to squeeze too much in to the design and instead of attracting consumers, they confuse them by forcing them to think about things that are tangential to their purchase decision. 

Aztec Flower War: review your packaging. Does it communicate the key things that consumers think about in their purchase journey? Everything else can go in your marketing, and your secondary packaging. But don’t sacrifice a key benefit for a fad and definitely not if you haven’t identified a need in the market. Typically for primary packaging, and specifically what consumers would see at the shelf, we recommend including brand, product name if relevant (e.g. cleaning brands would need to highlight if it’s shower spray or floor cleaner), 1-2 benefits (anything extra is not key to their purchase decision) and using imagery, colours and packaging material to communicate the rest of your brand story

The promotion, my personal favourite.

Promotions play an important role in the marketing mix, but there are some brands that have promotions so regularly their consumers have wizened up to it and never pay full price. I believe brands would be better off making a decision: be a less premium-priced brand and get the volume or sacrifice the volume of disloyal bargain hunters and get the margin. Trying to be both dilutes the brand. Increasingly we’re seeing more and more brands standing against things like Black Friday and saying instead that they offer the best price year round. 

Aztec Flower War: are promotions genuinely building your brand and your audience, or are they attracting disloyal bargain hunters who only come out of the woodwork at certain times in the year?

Nailing your target audience.

Trying to appeal to everyone and his dog is another fatal mistake that brands can make. Unless you are genuinely mainstream, brands cannot appeal to everyone. If you are slightly more healthy, then you appeal to a health-conscious consumer. End of. It’s time to accept that you cannot be everything to everyone. 

Aztec Flower War: do you know who your target audience is? Do you know what makes them tick and what their needs are? Are your communications targeted at them? Does your product meet their needs? If you cannot answer yes to these questions then you need to make some sacrifices and drop some consumers, more closely define your target audience or consider conducting market research.

Sacrifices come in all forms and can be woven into your brand story, often a profit sacrifice such as deciding to produce locally and support local industry instead of cheaper factories abroad; measuring success by the happiness of employees instead of the bottom line; taking a political stand about something you deeply believe in, even if it alienates some consumers. But if you do choose to take this stance, you have to take a stand proudly at every consumer touchpoint. You can’t be all about climate change in your marketing and then transport your product across the world without attempting to be carbon neutral.

Aztec Flower War: what corporate sacrifices do you make? Are you supporting these at all levels, or do other sacrifices need to be made in order to genuinely represent that in your marketing? Remember, this could mean sacrifices that further hit your bottom line, which shareholders will need to be on board with.

Most importantly stick to your strategy and don’t chase the next big thing, whether that’s a fad, a trend, a new exciting ingredient you want to try, or a promotion, unless it is in line with your strategy. Don’t constantly change your strategy, as all you’ll do is confuse your consumers and weaken the associations they hold of your brand. 

Aztec Flower War: is your strategy crystal clear? Do you know where you stand on your audience, your product/service benefits, and your pricing and promotion strategy? Does your brand essence guide your way like a lighthouse in a storm? If any of this doesn’t hang together, sacrifices need to be made.

Sacrifices are an important part of staying focused. We might not need them to appease the gods for better weather and fewer famines, but if you’re a brand manager ritual sacrifices will appease consumers and affect your bottom line favourably.

If you’re even slightly into history I highly recommend the You’re Dead to Me Podcast.