Reinventing iconic products: how to secure, transform and future‑proof your strategic pillars in a changing world

In a world undergoing accelerated transformation‑environmental pressure, new uses, shifting expectations, technological disruption‑iconic products play a unique strategic role.
 They carry a brand's history, activate powerful emotional memories, embody values, and create a deep intergenerational bond.

But their longevity is never accidental: only products capable of adapting to new lifestyles, new generations and emerging environmental constraints truly endure.

To support this evolution, Repères, in collaboration with Inspire*, has developed a robust and operational methodology to renovate, strengthen or reinvent iconics‑while preserving their genuine DNA.
 A unique, multi‑step approach that blends qual/quanti research, foresight and collective creativity.

1. UNDERSTAND: reveal the identity foundation of your iconic

Strategic scoping: auditing existing knowledge

The first step is to establish a clear strategic framework-essential to avoid wrong turns when reworking your iconic products.

After identifying internal stakeholders and your brand's priority challenges, we conduct:

• a mapping of internal knowledge (via our Datelia tool)
• your impact & dependency matrix

This reveals which areas of knowledge are solid, which require updating, and which need complementary research before any product transformation begins (e.g., brand equity studies, territory studies, or agile research such as Key Product Assets).

Identify the identity‑building assets of your iconic: the “Key Product Assets” approach

Before reinventing an iconic, we must understand what makes it irreplaceable, what makes it instantly recognisable, what makes it emotionally anchored.

This means distinguishing:

• the core identity (non‑negotiable attributes),
• the peripheral identity (elements that can evolve without compromising the essence).

Repères has built a unique agile and hybrid approach-Key Product Asset-combining qualitative exploration, quantitative robustness and AI‑augmented semantic analysis.

We explore four key dimensions:

-Spontaneous brand–product automatisms (R3M Score)

-Sensory and memory‑based experience

-Personification of the product

-Future projection

This is conducted via an online exploratory study with 120 respondents.

A fine semantic analysis (AI + human expertise) enables us to distinguish:

• Automatisms (⚡): sensory, functional or symbolic cues embedded in memory and driving immediate recognition.
  Measured with our exclusive R3M Score, which captures immediate emotion and spontaneous associations.
• Core identity (❤️): highly symbolic, meaningful and emotionally charged dimensions that express the product's uniqueness.
• Peripheral identity (✨): elements that can be reinterpreted or modernised without altering the brand‑product DNA.

This gives marketing and R&D teams an operational framework ensuring that the iconic remains true to itself while evolving. It identifies:

• what must be protected, amplified and leveraged,
• what can be reinterpreted or modernised without losing authenticity.

Example: Orangina reveals its identity pillars: Citrus taste, pulp, fizziness, the gesture/tagline “Shake me”… all form an intangible foundation.Meanwhile, attributes like pack colours, advertising tone or nostalgic territory belong to the evolving periphery.

Interestingly, the round bottle‑once a powerful emblem‑now activates fewer emotional automatisms. It remains symbolic but may require a contemporary reinterpretation to regain its distinctiveness.

2. ANTICIPATE: imagine future scenarios

Reinventing an iconic product means projecting it into future contexts.

Repères and Inspire develop prospective scenarios that integrate:

• major environmental, technological and societal transitions,
• structured trend analysis,
• detection of weak signals and emerging uses.

These scenarios feed the next stage-innovation workshops-and transform risks into tangible innovation opportunities.

Example: future of a chocolate product in a world where cocoa becomes scarce.
Scenarios revolve around naturality & functionality (e.g., magnesium, flavonoids), circularity & coproduct valorisation (e.g., mucilage), new experiential formats.

3. CO‑CREATE: generate strong innovation pathways through collective intelligence

Innovation workshops-custom‑designed and AI‑augmented‑form the creative heart of the methodology.
 They mobilise:

• proven creativity methods (immersive material, IA‑powered stimuli, projective & sensory exercises),
• proprietary canvases (e.g., Circulab to assess positive/negative impacts),
• designers from our partner agency Pareidolis for visual formalisation,
• cross‑functional collective intelligence: Marketing, R&D, Sustainability, Design, Insights…

This stage generates hundreds of ideas, which are then shaped into concepts, playbooks, prototypes, usage scenarios. 

The iconic takes form through strong, visualised, argumented concepts aligned with its core identity.

These ideas are then evaluated using robust multi‑criteria matrices built with your teams (attractiveness, differentiation, feasibility, market potential, sustainability alignment…).

The outcome: a refined selection of 10 to 12 full value propositions, illustrated through design fiction by Pareidolis.

These become the first iconic contenders to be tested.

Example: From the foresight scenario on cocoa scarcity emerges “Pulpe de Cacao”‑a circular, differentiating concept leveraging mucilage (a cocoa coproduct) presented in an iconic, recognisable form.

4. TEST: secure strategic decisions

Before selecting a final direction, value propositions can be validated in two complementary ways:

1. Iterative qualitative labs

Alternating focus groups and internal/external co‑creation workshops, in order to enable refinement, challenge and optimisation of the propositions.

2. Quantitative validation: emotional & predictive screening

We evaluate concepts using:

• R3M Score for emotional resonance,
• innovation adoption speed (actors vs spectators; early vs late adopters),
• a hybrid diagnostic of functional & emotional drivers.

This agile predictive method ranks concepts by deployment potential:

• Go / high‑potential
• Emerging
• To refine
• Niche / limited scope

A tailor‑made approach, built with your teams

This methodology is fully modular: each project adapts to your internal maturity, your existing knowledge base, your technical & sustainability constraints, and your strategic ambition.

Collaboration is central:
 Your internal expertise‑R&D, eco‑design, sourcing, operations, marketing, insights‑is essential, as it carries the history and authenticity of your brand.

Our role is to bring an external, expert perspective, a predictive and reliable methodology, and actionable guidance.

Through a unique combination of:

• foresight,
• augmented creativity,
• identity analysis (Key Product Assets),
• emotional modelling (R3M Score),
• and collective intelligence,

Repères & Inspire help you turn challenges into innovation opportunities, strengthen your strategic pillars, and create the iconic products of tomorrow.

* INSPIRE, created in 2010, is a hybrid consultancy combining insight, innovation and strategic foresight, dedicated to shaping a sustainable and desirable future.
 REPÈRES, your research partner for over 40 years, is a specialist institute for product, packaging and concept testing in France and internationally.