Brand excavation and my bathroom tiles

Here's a little brand parable for a Wednesday afternoon. When I moved into my first flat I decided to re-tile my Excavation bathroom. The bathroom was very small and cramped and the tiles were ugly.

When I removed the top set of tiles I noticed there was another set underneath, and under them were more sets of tiles. When I had removed them all the way back to the concrete the original tiles were still there. Not only that but they were 1930's (then trendy again) and a thing of beauty. And without all the clutter the bathroom also looked a whole lot more spacious.

When we start looking at where a brand can go in the future we often need to strip back many many years of various different marketing ideas or veneers. Most of the time if you keep digging into a brand's past there are many many gems from original logos, to original purpose, imagery or even advertising ideas. You've just got to know where to look and how to use it in a future focused way. To fully understand a brand, enough to change it, we all need to become brand archeologists - without the beards.