Certainly a legacy model like Crayola has carried out all it might to develop, proper? Mistaken.
On this episode of the Advertising Vanguard podcast, recorded reside at Brandweek in Atlanta, Victoria Lozano, then-CMO of Crayola, proves that the expansion work of even essentially the most iconic manufacturers can and will by no means cease.
From how nostalgia may be leveraged to the benefit of increasing into sudden classes, this dialog covers all of it.
What you’ll be taught:
- How one can merge nostalgia with future-forward relevance
- Why a CMO’s function with high-awareness manufacturers requires class growth
- The framework for segmented messaging throughout stakeholder teams
- How one can unlock hidden income streams in plain sight, like recognizing that 57% of Crayola purchases are made by adults with out kids
- The facility of branded sensory id as a defensible aggressive benefit
- Why ecosystem considering issues greater than particular person enterprise unit efficiency
Victoria Lozano, former CMO of Crayola, is famend for her experience in model technique, class growth and omnichannel advertising throughout iconic shopper manufacturers. With a profession spanning Fortune 500 CPG firms together with HBC, drinks and confectionery, she has constructed a various monitor document in product innovation, location-based leisure, and academic technique.
Her work at Crayola demonstrates how legacy manufacturers can evolve, redefine model classes, unlock new shopper segments, and construct enduring advertising methods that transcend conventional product boundaries, all whereas sustaining emotional resonance.
Episode Highlights:
[00:26] Merge Nostalgia with Cultural Relevance to Keep Prime-of-Thoughts — Victoria articulates the strategic pressure dealing with iconic manufacturers: leverage the emotional energy of nostalgia whereas concurrently displaying up in present cultural conversations and proving relevance to at this time’s shoppers. Nostalgia alone creates model heat however dangers positioning the model as a historic artifact; relevance alone with out emotional resonance feels opportunistic and inauthentic. The answer is to actively design merchandise, experiences, and content material that honor the model’s heritage whereas addressing present-day shopper values. In Crayola’s case, that’s creativity as important talent, wellness, self-expression and psychological well being.
[06:18] Redefining Your Use Case, Increase Income — Victoria highlights a counterintuitive however telling statistic: 57% of Crayola purchases now come from households with out kids, an enormous untapped phase pushed by grownup wellness and self-expression fairly than childhood nostalgia. By repositioning coloring from a children’ creativity software to an grownup therapeutic escape (competing in opposition to wine, meditation apps, and wellness merchandise), Crayola unlocked a wholly new development class that’s increasing three share factors year-over-year. This perception reveals that development for mature manufacturers lies not in market share cannibalization however in redefining what downside the product solves for brand spanking new audiences.
[07:50] Craft Differentiated Worth Guarantees for Every Viewers Section — Victoria demonstrates that premium manufacturers should make essentially completely different guarantees to distinct audiences, whether or not it’s children, dad and mom, lecturers or adults. In Crayola’s case, for instance, for youths, the promise is straightforward pleasure and enjoyable; for folks, it’s talent growth and childhood enrichment backed by analysis. CMOs can operationalize this by mapping every viewers phase’s core motivation, then reverse-engineering messaging and channel technique from that single, clear promise. The result’s messaging that feels genuine to every group whereas sustaining constant model id, rising conversion probability throughout the whole buyer ecosystem. This method transforms aggressive stress from a distraction right into a reinforcement of positioning, since every phase’s promise is so exactly calibrated to their distinctive wants.
