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For several years now, we've been following and commenting on the assorted challenges facing the so-called legacy brands in the food and beverage sector of the CPG arena. While most legacy brands continue to hobble along, perhaps tinkering with new packaging formats or line extensions, the most dynamic growth in consumer loyalty, and often in sales, appears to be coming from two alternate directions.

On the one side we find steady, growing consumer interest in private label products, especially when they are offered within vibrant, compelling retail experiences as in the case of Central Market, Trader Joe's, Wegmans and others. And on the other side we find many "contemporary" brands have found success with appeals to the "specialty" or "natural" arenas of the food world. We're referring here to brands such as Izze, Muir Glen, Annie's, Dean & Deluca and numerous others of that ilk.

In short, it is pretty clear that the defining brands of the 20th century - Kraft, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Pepsi, Nabisco and their brethren - are being gradually squeezed from both directions.

Therein lies some of the biggest questions facing the contemporary CPG world, at least in the food and beverage categories: Can the legacy brands manage to maintain relevance while facing increasing competition and shrinking market share? And, if so, what could they possibly do to refashion themselves with an eye toward 21st century relevancy?

The Case Study

It is something of a habit in the business literature to want to point to successful examples from the "real world" and then try to generalize from said examples to devise successful strategies. While we're not against this approach per se, the problem is that we cannot think of any actual examples of legacy brands that have managed to refashion themselves toward true relevancy in the CPG world. Some might point to McDonald's recent resurrection, yet it's not clear that McDonald's has necessarily recreated themselves as ultra-relevant as much as they have turned a close eye back to the basics. That is, many analysts have attributed their rapid "turn around" to a keen focus on customer service, cleanliness and other basics that were part of the original brand offering 50 years ago. And in any case, their brand hasn't suddenly become so relevant and "hot" that it can afford not to compete severely on price.

But, we also know consumers are resonating to some of the sensory and experiential changes that McDonald's is making. Included in this reconnection with consumers are newer changes offering more relevant choices without ostracizing their core customers and extending hours of operation to be there for a diverse customer lifestyle base. They haven't so much moved their position in the marketplace as extended it to include more relevant food choices and relevant store hours for more relevant occasions.

The Case of Bond, James Bond

But if we turn to the world of cinema, we suddenly find the perfect case of brand resurrection in the form of the recent James Bond film Casino Royale. Let's be honest, before this film the franchise was in shambles. After successful runs with charismatic lead actors Sean Connery and Roger Moore, the last few choices (i.e., Pierce Brosnan) were questionable, at best. But in addition, the screen adaptations of Ian Fleming's novels had become so cliché that they appeared almost as self parodies. The villains - who bore the silliest of names - were always hiding in some sort of unusual structure (cave, volcano, oil platform, submarine, etc.) and they were likewise always threatening to destroy the world with some sort of wacky scientific invention (e.g., death ray).

Bond, on the other hand, always managed to defeat them almost single-handedly thanks to hokey antics and Cold War-inspired spy gadgetry. While these stories may have captured the imagination of a pre-Apollo generation locked in a Cold War arms race, by 21st century standards they seem like comic book fodder.

So the powers that be took some (very) bold chances. They ditched the whole "insane villain bent on destroying the world" concept, as well as most of the typical "Bond gadgetry." They also splurged and hired Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Paul Haggis, known for his work on Million Dollar Baby and Crash. Likewise, they built the screenplay around something believable to a 2006 audience (recovering money to fund terrorism) and chose a completely unknown lead actor, Daniel Craig, who had an actual sense of presence and style - if not a streak of, well, nastiness. Let's face it, this was a "Bond" the likes of which we haven't seen in, well, nigh 30 years.

What resulted was, to be certain, something very far a field from any previous James Bond film, but it actually resonated with its 2006 audience, in the process quickly becoming the single best-grossing Bond film of all time. While nervous studio execs might have worried that die-hard Bond fans may have been shocked and frustrated that this bore little resemblance to the previous canon, the film captured the imagination of an entire new generation, not to mention many of the old fans as well. In short, those involved manage to wholly refashion the Bond franchise into something truly relevant to a 2006 film audience.

Generalizing These Observations to CPG Products

The lesson here is that if they wish to refashion themselves into true relevance in today's epoch, legacy CPG brands must accept the fact that their future may look like a very different place.

So does this mean that a brand like Coke should push their development teams into focus groups to reformulate their flagship product for the tastes of a new era? Of course not. We've all seen what happened with that strategy. But the question remains, how much can be done to a single beverage or food product, or collection of products, to recapture the consumer imagination?

In some cases, we are not so sure that it might make the best sense to let certain legacy CPG brands "wander out to pasture" to die a quiet and dignified death. For example, in the case of Wonder Bread, one of the most iconic brands of the 20th century, rather than spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to refashion a new and improved loaf of bread, perhaps it's better to issue a DNR order (do not resuscitate) and focus your brand building efforts on something more engaging and relevant to 21st century consumers. Who knows, perhaps the Wonder Bread of the near future will be reconceived as a series of neighborhood micro-bakeries offering fresh, local and wholesome baked products to new generations of consumers while the slices of Wonder Bread languish quietly in (what remains) of the center store experience.

There are no easy answers here. The business of re-imagination is tricky, at best - a road littered with good intentions, almost-made-its and the downright strange. But if we are to take anything away from our example with the Bond franchise, those seeking to rejuvenate their legacy brands had best be prepared for a future landscape that will look nothing at all like the present.

Tinderbox is a part of The Hartman Group, Inc. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.