Rebranding icons for Generation Alpha

Iconic brands face a question of evolution: How do you evolve a global icon without losing its soul?

Brands like Coca‑Cola, Barbie or the Mini carry something akin to “built‑in heritage” yet young consumers (Gen Z and Alpha) expect brands to be fresh, inclusive and values-driven.

In Indian (and indeed global) markets, the challenge is to create engaging relationships with younger consumers, while retaining the brand authenticity that made them iconic in the first place. Take Coca‑Cola and its recent Creations platform, which was built with the aim to remix and reinvent Coke through unexpected partnerships, experimental limited‑edition design and product drops. This became a powerful example of how to give younger audiences reasons to care about a legacy brand that’s over 130 years old.

For iconic brands, reaching new audiences successfully lies in defining what to preserve (core identity, purpose, signature visuals) and what to adapt (new styles, experiences, collaborations).

Understand and reflect culture

Iconic brands have a deep relationship with culture, whereby they don’t just talk about culture, they stay relevant to audiences by deeply participating in that culture, meeting new audiences where they live and in ways those audiences resonate with. That means deeply understanding what matters to young Indian (and global) consumers and reflecting those insights in brand activations.

Coca‑Cola has recently built strong relationships with younger demographics through super smart partnerships with streetwear, music and cultural icons (think Star Wars, Converse, Crenshaw Skate Club, League of Legends, etc.) and carried this through with brand activations that came with merchandise, music, art and events in those communities. The result is that the brand feels real and relevant, and crucially, authentic and not gimmicky.

 

 

 

 

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When you look at it from a global perspective, this means localising. During Navratri for example, Coca‑Cola India teamed up with McDonald’s to launch colour‑changing Coke cups, a simple tech application that turned into a must‑have collectable during the festival. And its ‘Locally Yours’ campaign celebrates neighbourhood shopkeepers as community heroes.

These initiatives aren’t about PR; they signal that the brand understands and values Indian culture and community. The result: a global icon that feels connected, not alien, to young Indian consumers.

Other brands do this too: In late 2024, Italian luxury house Tod’s collaborated with Indian couturier Rahul Mishra to release a collection to honour Indian craftsmanship. The Barbie movie and massive merch drop tailored a nostalgia icon for today’s audiences (grossing $1 billion worldwide and boosting doll sales), while Louis Vuitton’s direction under Pharrell Williams as men’s creative director has been a cultural signal as much as a fashion decision, mirroring India’s own shift in luxury from status to self-expression–all aiming to cement LV as a “cultural-first brand”.

Know what to fix and where to flex

To update any brand, you must first identify your brand’s immutable core. What elements and values make your icon who it is? For Coke, it’s joy, togetherness, uplift, symbolised by the distinct red colour, classic script logo, and the Coke ribbon. These elements must remain sacrosanct. Around them, decide what can change (and why). Maybe it’s the colour palette or typography style; maybe it’s the tone of messaging or the environments you activate in.

For the launch of Coca‑Cola Creations across multiple geographies, the global team recognised the need to stretch the brand’s visual language while keeping its core intact. We maintained a strict hierarchy on packaging: the Coke logo and essential info stayed prominent exactly as before but everything around it became a playground for experimentation.

That meant exploring a blocky, pixel-inspired logo for the gaming-led ‘Byte’ flavour, or a fluid drip-script expression for the ‘Marshmello’ collaboration. Crucially, in each case, the iconic essence was intact, even if the look was new.

This approach helps prevent missteps. When Cracker Barrel discarded its classic country‑store logo in 2025, investors panicked and politicians lined up to criticise, and the stock dove 7.2% (about $94 million lost) in one day. Consumers felt the brand had lost its soul.

Tropicana’s 2009 redesign was similarly disastrous. It ditched its signature orange image, which potentially played a part in an estimated $50 million in lost sales.

Tropicana's rebranding fail cost the brand more than $50 million

The lesson for brands here is clear: don’t fix something that isn’t broke; rather, ask what do long‑time fans love most, and how can new innovations accentuate rather than replace that?

Engage the senses

Young Indian audiences are increasingly craving experiences, not just logos. Iconic brands are expanding beyond sight and words into sound, motion and even touch – all adding an emotional memory – making the experience more human.

Sprite’s recent summer festivals in South Korea and Vietnam are a case in point. Instead of just TV ads, the brand built a multi‑sensory beach party in Asia and beyond, complete with giant water guns, inflatable Sprite slides and spray showers that soaked the crowd. Attendees not only tasted Sprite and listened to great music, but they felt its full “intense refreshment” with every soaking, creating Instagram-worthy memorable moments. These events generate powerful user‑created content that keeps the brand front of mind on social media.

Sprite serves as the official refreshment partner for multiple Waterbomb events

Icons can also play on the digital sense. Animated logos, AR filters, custom soundtracks or jingles, even branded virtual reality spaces all count as sensory branding. The goal for brands operating in India is to immerse people in the brand world, understanding that 21st‑century icons will compete on the full gamut of 360° experiences: taste, smell, sound, sight, and touch.

As brands evolve, they need to balance flexibility and rigidity, with timelessness. Beyond design systems or marketing frameworks, iconic brands endure the test of time because the brand stays culturally fluent, meaning it knows when to listen, when to evolve and when to hold its ground.

For audiences, especially Gen Z and Alpha, this fluency matters more than nostalgia. Brands that stay rooted but responsive, driven by design, will continue to feel relevant and unmistakably themselves.

-Archie Colvin, creative director, forpeople