In an era of disruption and constant reinvention, consumer brands are navigating a delicate balance: evolving to meet tomorrow’s demands while staying true to their enduring appeal and significance. That balance is where heritage proves its enduring value as a strategic framework for brand growth.
On “The History Factory Podcast,” we explored the ideas behind our white paper “The Role of Heritage in Brand Building for Consumer Brands.” Heritage isn’t just a story worth telling—it’s also a business asset.
Listen to the podcast episode here.
History Is a Record. Heritage Is a Choice.
One of the most important distinctions we can make in branding work is between history and heritage. As Senior Director of Business Insight and Performance Erin Narloch explains in the episode, history is a comprehensive record of names, dates and events. Heritage, by contrast, is curated. It’s a selection of pivotal moments that reinforce where a brand is headed. It’s about using memory with imagination to commemorate the past, reinforce the business strategies of today and tomorrow, and fuel the future.
Brands that lead in heritage storytelling don’t just catalog the past. They also activate it, aligning it with future aspirations and consumer expectations.
Know what you’re using: History and heritage are separate but complimentary. You need to know the complete record (history) to curate its most significant elements (heritage) to create impact.
Heritage Brands Versus Brands With Heritage
Whether your company is five or 150 years old, how you use your origin story matters. Heritage brands like Red Wing Shoes and Harley-Davidson embody cultural significance that’s practically part of their DNA. Brands with heritage, regardless of industry or age, can create emotional relevance by actively managing and deploying their stories.
That deployment starts with the understanding that brand heritage is not fixed. It’s dynamic. It should influence innovation, inspire internal teams and signal to customers that the brand they love today is built on something meaningful.
Codify your brand story: Develop a clear, cohesive brand heritage narrative. Make it accessible to internal teams, especially new leaders and high-potential talent.
Building Brand Trust: Proof Over Platitudes
Our research confirms what great marketers already know: Brands that use heritage effectively score higher in trust, authenticity and loyalty.
Too many brands lean on heritage passively, simply defaulting to a founding date or a vintage logo. Putting “Since 1850” on a brand’s packaging might hint at trust, but it doesn’t tell us why that brand has endured. Truly strategic brands use their heritage to show how craftsmanship, credibility and purpose have consistently defined them. This is the difference between legacy as window dressing and legacy as a proof point.
When heritage is embedded in brand culture, it becomes second nature and can be a powerful sales tool. Take Reebok’s James Hardaway, for example—a longtime leader whose ability to connect key account buyers with the brand’s past has helped animate product launches and elevate conversations with major retail partners.
That’s the power of heritage in business development: connecting what’s happened with why it matters now. The best organizations cultivate legacy internally and externally.
Train the front lines: Equip sales, customer service and marketing teams to articulate your brand’s legacy in compelling, relevant ways.
The Loyalty Loop: How Heritage Fuels Emotional Connection
Consumer loyalty is emotional. It’s driven by how a brand makes people feel about themselves. Heritage can play a starring role in that relationship by sharing a brand’s story.
When used well, brand heritage helps create what we call a “loyalty loop.” It affirms that a brand is trustworthy, stable and consistent even as that brand evolves. It also connects employees to purpose and pride, helping them see themselves as part of something greater than their job descriptions. That internal resonance is essential: Great heritage storytelling starts inside and radiates out.
Out of 1,000 brands we surveyed for our upcoming 2025 Heritage Gap Report, Nintendo ranked ninth when it came to positive and neutral social media posts discussing each brand’s history and heritage. Many of the posts we reviewed expressed affection for older Nintendo games like Tetris. Our research suggests that consumers are actively celebrating the anniversaries of older Nintendo products and sharing their appreciation for them.
Use evidence to illuminate the abstract: When explaining your brand’s big strategic ambitions, show how your brand has done it before.
Beyond Nostalgia: Using the Past With Purpose
Nostalgia and heritage are related but not interchangeable. Nostalgia is emotional and often idealized. Heritage is evidential and strategic.
While nostalgia can be powerful, it must be handled with care. Overindulging in feel-good throwbacks can isolate audiences or oversimplify the past. Authentic heritage storytelling respects complexity. It owns missteps. It reinforces purpose. And it ensures that what came before has meaning in what comes next.
Invest in an archives: Your institutional memory is your most powerful IP. Protect it. Activate it. Use it. When it’s used actively, heritage doesn’t hold brands back. It moves them forward.
Read the rest here: “The Role of Heritage in Brand Building for Consumer Brands.”