Linkin Park: how to repackage and reinvent a brand
by Chris Reed
Linkin Park’s new album A Thousand Suns is a great demonstration of how a brand can be redesigned, relaunched and reinvented from a position of strength to appeal to both existing and new customers.
Linkin Park could have kept to the same formula of their first few albums which sold 10’s of millions of copies but they have chosen to create a brand new sound while continuing to carry many of their existing brand values of social injustice, rebelling against the corporate and government machine on one side and personal passion, hurt and emotional pain on the other side. It’s a fearless and even darker album than previous ones, it’s more electronic, less rocky and more rap orientated than ever before and in places more beautiful and uplifting while in others still containing the same anger but less passionate screaming that they have always been known for.
They have dramatically changed their product parts. With the use of recorded, world-weary speeches by scientist Robert Oppenheimer, political activist Mario Savio and Martin Luther King Jr they have stepped up their political and social overtures that were coming through on their Minutes to Midnight album which itself was a different sound from their original albums which made their name. There is a sense of anger and fight all over the album. It will make you think and wonder about the world and why other bands of similar standing are not looking to challenge injustices in the same way that Linkin Park are highlighting. Not many artists have the guts to change their entire sound and in effect their brand design and consumer appeal and shake their existing fans from their comfort zone as well as surprising non-fans.
The album’s sound and feel will be hated by many existing fans expecting another Hybrid Theory or Meteora but be embraced by more open minded ones. It will be loved by many new fans that once dismissed Linkin Park. It will make people think and re-examine their prejudices about them in the way that many marketers will wish their brand could be re-examined and re-thought of. They have redesigned their brand and created a whole new target audience without fear of failure – will it work? Only time will tell. Music message boards around the world are split 50/50, the critics are mostly pleasantly surprised by it. Personally I love it!