Al and Laura Ries, in their book The Origin of Brands already establish similarities between brands, their birth, development, evolution and even death, with Charles Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species: “Product categories will diverge, divide and provide endless opportunities for the creation of brands”. Let’s look at essential products such as milk, bread and oil. Product categories that were originally very basic (natural milk, white bread or olive oil) have been developing and creating new subcategories and different products, and even generating new business opportunities. Who would have thought a few years ago that we would know what picual oil, soya milk or sourdough are and look for them? And that buying bread would become a whole experience full of options: sourdough, cereals, corn, unleavened bread…
Behind all this revolution, the dual nature of brands is intrinsic. None of this would have been possible without the essential collaboration between marketing and RDI. In every company, this cooperation has become closer and closer in order to respond to the evolution of the markets and to the customers’ needs.
And it is here that the personalities of Darwin and Verne come together. The “R” in Research responds to the need to understand the market and the consumer as they are, to understand their motivations and to identify opportunities. The “D” in Development represents the evolution of a brand, its products and services, to take advantage of these opportunities. And the “I” in Innovation stands for the essential obligation of a brand, product or service to evolve, to create new sub-products or even new sub-categories in order to grow or survive in the market.
Charles Darwin took responsibility for Researching our environment, the world as it was, and Jules Verne “Innovated” by imagining what that world could be like: from the submarine in his 20,000 Leagues... to the international communications network (which we now call the internet) which he envisages in his first novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, including the journey to the moon and the conquest of the poles.
For all these reasons, at Darwin & Verne we are convinced that Darwin and Verne are present in every brand. Because all of them, their products or services, must understand the reality of their market and their consumers, how they are and how they behave, and then imagine how they could be, how their needs or desires could evolve in order to design new products or services for them. This is also why our work philosophy is based on three fundamental concepts: UNDERSTAND – IMAGINE – GO, reflecting our ability to understand our clients’ business, imagine where it should or can evolve and accompany them on their extraordinary brand journey.
Shall we start the journey?
