Our thinking on business and brand, and what makes them grow
When brand building is also future-proofing
When change is the only constant, how does your brand manage it? Image: Adobe Stock
By Sue Ann Ho, Founder
31 July 2025 • 4 min read
Sometimes change is an opportunity to leverage, and sometimes your brand is a part of the response.
TAKEAWAYS
- A strong brand strategy plans for evolution so your brand stays connected to your customers over time.
- Brands can future-proof by adapting how they serve customers or discovering new ways to engage with them.
- Evolving your brand is one way to keep your business ready for whatever comes next.
You’ve probably come across National Geographic (Nat Geo) somewhere. Maybe it was a yellow-bordered magazine at the doctor’s office. Maybe a documentary on Disney+. It’s the result of strategic business evolution over more than a century. But in keeping with the times, Nat Geo didn’t just evolve the business, it evolved its brand too, making its voice strongly felt on social media. Its main @natgeo account is among the top brand accounts on Instagram, a testament to how it successfully translated its brand for the audience of this generation.
When your brand grows with your audience
Nat Geo’s brand purpose hasn’t changed since the day it was founded. Whether it was 137 years ago or today, it’s here to inspire the explorer in all of us. What’s changed is how it does it.
When social media became a daily habit, it made its brand content in formats we can scroll and share. And as self-expression and personal identity became more pronounced in our culture, the business offered another way for people to connect: through official branded merchandise. Suddenly, you didn’t just have to read about exploration. You could wear your identity as an explorer.
By evolving its brand with our habits, Nat Geo was also future-proofing, a move that’s right at the heart of any strong brand strategy.
When your brand grows in expression
We’ve also observed another way that brands future-proof: by discovering new ways to talk to their audiences.
Take Michelin Tires, the company that created what became the world’s most prestigious restaurant guide. Or Guinness, whose pub-centred brand culture led it to create the Book of World Records as a way to settle pub disputes, or so it says.
The Michelin Guide and Book of World Records eventually became new lines of businesses but they weren’t intended to be diversification strategies at the outset. Instead, they were brands finding new ways to serve their customers beyond their core products. Michelin wasn’t just selling tires; it was helping drivers discover great places to visit. Guinness wasn’t just serving beer; it was helping pub goers decide who’s getting their facts right.
It isn’t just global brands that can spare the effort. On a smaller scale for an SME, a boutique gym for example, it can issue regular fitness challenges on social media to encourage habitual exercise.
Because times change, lifestyles change, your customers also change
People and their habits change with the times. It makes sense that businesses and their brands have to keep up too if they want to stay part of their customers’ lives. Nat Geo is a good example to look at because its product is its content, and the business is the brand. People’s tastes, preferences and habits are constantly evolving, and folks in the publishing business feel it very keenly.
Every business owner knows that change is a given. Part of running a business is to watch for it. Sometimes change is an opportunity to leverage, and sometimes your brand is a part of the response. Evolving your brand strategy alongside your business strategy is one of the ways your business can react to shifts in the market, your customers and your competition.
It’s why a brand shouldn’t stand still
Your business will keep meeting new customers, face new competition and adapt to new market conditions. And that’s why, like business operations, brand building is ongoing operations. Keeping your brand moving with change is a part of keeping your business in business. That’s how brand building becomes future-proofing.
Brand building isn’t hidden theory. It’s all around us. By noticing how successful brands connect with people, we can take the guesswork out of building brands that stand out and grow.
