We often preach Darwin around these parts. Because business.

It isn’t always an easy sell. We are often asked if we risk rejection by potential clients skeptical about, you know, science-y stuff. That’s a legitimate concern; an extraordinary number of Americans are unpersuaded by evidence. Pew Research found millions of them. These people will reject the concept of brand evolution as well.

We press on, regardless. The reasoning is sound – marketing processes mimic biological processes. Language, too, follows the pattern of adaptation and evolution. The naive question, “If man evolved from monkeys, how come there’s still monkeys?” is answered by “If English evolved from German, how come there’s still German?’

Even social movements go with the flow. Look at the startling speed of attitude change regarding marriage equality. Logically, evolution principles also apply to brand survival. Don’t let your competitors out-adapt you.

Awareness of brand evolution makes for better decisions.

Anticipating the next wave of change lets an agile brand guide adapt one jump ahead of competitors. Like Darwin’s Galapagos Finches, that will help you flourish.

Both you and your fiercest competitor face the same digital-era challenges (“Is anybody reading those pdfs we send out?”) so it’s a race to find the solution first. Last one in loses.

Adding it all up, evolution rejectors may be less than ideal prospects for our services. We offer reality-tested advice (“don’t put your phone number in a radio spot,” “don’t dabble in many media if you can dominate one,” “don’t use the word quality in a tagline”) which are tested and true products of well-documented research. They fly in the face of old-school beliefs, though. That doesn’t always end well. It seems we’ll have to content ourselves with brilliantly incisive clients.

So. Know any higher-wattage brands who would be good for us to partner with? Introduce us.