Brand amnesia – Bites you in the backside

am·ne·sia (m-nzh) n. – Partial or total loss of memory, usually resulting from shock, psychological disturbance, brain injury, or illness.

Also, if our friendly, neighbourhood Spiderman decides to wear his undies outside his pants “for the ladies”, I would like to call that Brand Amnesia.  Because he isn’t so friendly anymore.  If they make Zara (in Madras) a three-storey night club with trance playing all the time, brand amnesia again.  If Rolex decides to come out with a low-cost model, that could be brand amnesia and an unnecessary foray into a new strategy, thereby losing identity for their elite line of watches.

Brand amnesia is a phenomenon when you forget what you or your identity represents.

When you do something out of character in your life, that’s brand amnesia.  Because I believe every individual is a brand, co-created by themselves and their network.  And when you supress your instincts and “go with the flow”, you are killing your brand.

So whether it is a company, an individual or a country, one needs to watch out and take every step in order to ensure that you retain the sanity of your brand.