Declutter Your Brand Pantry
Visiting friends and family in California, without the boat
When we left our boat to visit family, getting our food in order was critical. This was not cleaning our pantry to feel good afterwards—this was cleaning to avoid unwanted bugs and power down the entire boat.
Brands, like boats, encounter a similar need for periodic cleaning and strategic renewal. Sustaining brand health involves both active curation and proactive upkeep.
Onboard, we follow a simple system: toss what could go bad, treasure the essentials and transform or donate what still has potential.
Let’s jump into it
Over time, global brands accumulate a pantry of assets: campaigns, taglines, visuals, products, services, strategies and even perceptions from customers and the business.
Some remain evergreen, while others feel like forgotten leftovers or ingredients that just don’t work for new taste palettes.
In brand strategy, a company’s identity can be compared to various foods in a pantry. Some attributes can attract the wrong type of attention, while others have a longer shelf life.
We have food everywhere in the boat
For global brands, this clarity is crucial to stay relevant, navigate different regions and avoid the risk of brand dilution. If you’re going into new markets, a brand pantry refresh is a good place to start.
Often we look at brands through a conventional lens. A SWOT analysis feels more like a diagnostic checklist than a collaborative journey of human creativity and collective evolution.
A helpful resource
The Toss-Treasure-Transform approach shifts brand strategy from routine maintenance to creative action. Your brand thrives when regularly reviewed and stocked with what matters.
Just as chefs tweak recipes to suit local tastes, brands must evolve to meet market and audience preferences—something I witnessed while growing Converse’s product line in Europe and the UK.
Toss-Treasure-Transform Framework
Here’s how leaders can use Toss-Treasure-Transform to feel refreshed and ready for 2025:
- Take Inventory: List all brand assets—campaigns, visuals, taglines, ideas and more—to see what you’re working with.
- Align with Goals: Evaluate assets through the lens of current business, brand, regional and audience objectives.
- Clear the Clutter: Remove outdated or irrelevant ideas and assets that no longer serve your brand.
- Preserve the Best: Focus on keeping high-performing, timeless brand elements, ideas and values.
- Repurpose Creatively: Transform existing ideas or assets into fresh content or solutions to maximise their value.
A well-maintained pantry reveals hidden treasures and prevents spoilage, much like a thorough review of your brand uncovers overlooked insights and curious opportunities.
Every boat or brand pantry goes through its stages of overstocked to underappreciated. Tossing, treasuring and transforming keeps your brand lean, manageable and ready for future growth.
When was the last time you cleaned out your brand pantry?
And there’s more
✏️ Join: My next webinar How to Jumpstart Any Brand in 2025 looks at how to reconsider your brand team’s approach for 2025.
📚 Read: Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker is a somewhat comical journey into the art world by a journalist.
🎧 Listen: How Technology Became the World’s Top Religion considers tech’s impact on society, morals, innovation and risk.
📍Visit: The Huntington Library and Gardens should be on more ‘Best Botanical Gardens’ lists.