It's time we all look forward.
Introducing the Purple Ascendancy™ Principle
So many scores. No path forward. There are a lot of reputation tools out there – including scores, lists and rankings. But they’re static, and we live in a dynamic world.
The Purple Ascendancy™ Principle is our unique approach to managing reputation for better business results tomorrow.
It’s not a score. It’s a road map. The Purple Ascendancy Principle gives you alternatives to consider in order to grow through reputation management. You won’t simply find out where you stand. Understanding how and why you got there, you’ll learn what options you have to move forward.
The Ascendancy Principle can be applied to a broad range of reputation scenarios – from creating competitive advantage through reputation assertion, building advocacy, to managing through reputation challenges and genuine crises. And no matter what your current situation, we will help you to define, understand, measure, analyze and manage your assets toward positive business outcomes.
The key here is the Ascendancy Principle is not a one-size-fits-all measure. We consider context, because no two situations are the same. Your outcomes aren’t driven by the same factors as what drives someone in another industry or even your closest competitor. The Ascendancy Principle delivers business value to your unique situation.
THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF BRANDS
WHAT SETS THE ASCENDANCY PRINCIPLE APART
To understand where a brand truly stands, you have to consider the fundamental nature of brands. That means taking into account the role the forces of time and momentum have on a brand. The Purple Ascendancy Principle considers the inescapable ravages time exerts on reputation, and the way momentum pulls and pushes brand reputation performance. Understanding all forces impacting brand reputation is the only way to build a forward-leaning strategy.
Brands follow a common lifecycle
- Miracle
- Familiar
- Common
- Devalued
Where a brand sits on this time-based continuum is essential to strategic decision-making but it’s completely left out of current one-dimensional approaches to measurement. The fact of the matter is, the day of your greatest success can also be the beginning of your decline. Our Principle will help you identify pathways to renewal and continued success.
Success and Momentum
Time
Nascent
Ascendant
Mature
Descendant
CHARACTER & CONNECTEDNESS TO THE FUTURE
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE. IT’S ABOUT WHERE YOU’RE GOING.
Our approach utilizes two ideas you’re probably already measuring – performance and character – and introduces another factor no other score or ranking takes into consideration: connectedness to the future. It’s those three measures combined that provide the critical difference here.
Because the truth is, without connectedness to the future, brands decay and go extinct. And the rate of brand extinction is growing faster and faster. Fifty years ago, brands had a 75-year life expectancy. By last year, it had shrunk to less than 15.
Disappearing Act
Only 13% of the companies on the Fortune 500 in 1955 are there today.
- 1955
- 1960
- 1970
- 1980
- 1990
- 2000
- 2015
THE PURPLE ASCENDANCYTM MODEL BEARS OUT
WHAT OTHER SCORES WOULD TELL YOU VS. WHAT OUR MODEL REVEALS
No single score can tell a whole story. In traditional reputation scoring models, a score has a universal meaning. But when all factors are taken into account, a more complicated story is revealed and real business implications and options open up.
Two brands could have the same score but be in completely different positions along their lifecycle. Two ascendant brands can be totally healthy, but take completely different approaches to maintaining ascendancy.
Take Amazon and Microsoft for example. Two technology companies with different business goals and business imperatives, at different points in their lifecycles. A ranking would indicate these two brands are in the same place, so they should follow the same course of action. Deeper analysis reveals something very different.
Amazon considers every day “day 1.” The moment one of their miracles becomes familiar, they go back and invent a new one. They’ve already gone from an online book marketplace to subscription-based vendor to media provider to technology manufacturer in their short lifetime. What daily-life-changing idea is next is anyone’s guess.
Microsoft has taken a very different approach. They’re unassailably one of the most successful brands in the world, a status they’ve achieved by reinvesting in their original miracle over and over. Through decades, they’ve remained irreplaceably valuable to conducting modern business even throughout countless changes to the way business operates.
THE COST OF NOT LOOKING FORWARD
BRANDS THE PRINCIPLE COULD HAVE RESURRECTED
The benefits of looking forward are obvious, but the consequences of not doing so can be devastating. Think about Kodak and Blockbuster. If they’d applied the idea of connectedness to the future to their core brand imperatives, and renewed their miracle instead of focusing exclusively on performance, they would be in very different places today.
It’s easy to see how Blockbuster could have become Netflix. What was Blockbuster about? Unbelievable variety at maximum convenience. Blockbuster provided options and experience. If they had renewed their miracle over time, they could easily have maintained that position now filled by Netflix.
It’s less obvious to imagine how Kodak could have become Facebook. We know what you’re thinking, “Don’t you mean Instagram?” But Kodak focused solely on performance, ignoring character and connectedness to the future. They forgot what their brand was about at its core. The way we see it, Kodak was about using technology to capture and share the best moments of your life with those you’re closest to and want to remain in touch with. If they’d considered all three dimensions, they could have created a brand new, hugely profitable miracle. Instead, we have Facebook.
An Exclusive Invitation
SEE HOW PURPLE’S APPLIED THE PRINCIPLE FOR CLIENTS
Ready to see the Ascendancy Principle at work? Unfortunately, our clients’ strategies are proprietary. We’d never share the strategies we built for you publicly, either. So to see how we’ve applied the Principle through research and campaigns for real clients, request a conversation with a senior Purple strategist. They’ll give you a peek behind the curtain, share case studies and the hard data. Whether your brand is just making a name for itself and nascent, ascendant but looking toward the future, or grappling with changes, the Purple Ascendancy Principle can help you identify the path that best serves your business goals.
Let’s talk about how your brand could benefit from our expertise, strategic thinking, insights and activation. Which of our senior strategists would you like to talk to?
Alex Castellanos
Founding Partner, Chairman
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Doug Usher
Managing Partner, Purple Insights
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Jillayne Smyth Rogers
Partner, Chief Creative Officer
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Steve McMahon
Founding Partner, CEO
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Robert Fronk
Managing Director, Reputation Strategy
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