What Old Brochures Can Still Teach You

There’s an unopened drawer in almost every family business.

Somewhere between the 1993 tax returns and an envelope marked “Urgent” in fading biro, it waits.

Inside: a marketing plan from 1983.

Typed. Laminated. Slightly yellowed. Smelling of cigarette ash and stubbornness.

Next to it? A Polaroid of Uncle Ray, polyester suit, proud moustache, beside a van bearing the hand-painted slogan:

“Your Problem Is Our Business.”

No phone number. No call to action. Just bravado.

No one remembers who wrote it.

But everyone remembers the argument it caused.

The Drawer of Unfinished Business

Every family firm has one.

Leaflets with logos that changed four times in one year.
Brochures that promised free lawnmowers instead of 10% off and had to be honoured.
Caps that were meant to be ironic but weren’t.

These aren’t just keepsakes.

They’re artefacts of ambition, tension, and survival.

They show what got done at 5 a.m.
What was approved at 11 p.m.
What was printed on borrowed credit and delivered by whoever had the bigger car boot.

It wasn’t strategic. But it was real.

The Copy Didn’t Sell the Product. It Sold the Family

The slogans were shorter.
The tempers, too.

“Quality Is a Family Tradition.”
“Service Since 1971.”
“Your Garden, Our Pride.”

Not award-winning. But they held a truce:

• Between siblings with different visions

• Between a mother who wanted to upscale and a cousin who didn’t trust change

• Between practicality and pride

Branding decisions weren’t just commercial.
They were emotional ceasefires.

Every slogan was code.
Every font, a family vote.

Why the Past Still Shapes the Present

Today, when someone suggests rebranding, the silence is rarely strategic.

It’s ancestral.

We remember the time Helvetica nearly ended a marriage.
The time Times New Roman was labelled “pretentious.”
The afternoon a new logo was likened to “corporate surrender.”

This isn’t resistance.
It’s memory.

Because those old ads may have been clumsy, but they were ours.
Created in kitchens. Fought over in living rooms.
Proof that even chaos can build loyalty.

FAQs: Navigating Nostalgia Without Losing the Plot

Q: Shouldn’t we just throw out the old branding and start fresh?
You can. But first understand what the old branding held together emotionally, not just visually.

Q: How do we avoid another family fallout over design?
Name the dynamic before the decision. “This isn’t about fonts. It’s about fears.” That alone diffuses tension.

Q: What if the old materials are embarrassing?
They probably are. That’s the point. Let them remind you what matters: that you did the work, together.

Q: Is there ever a right time to rebrand?
Yes, when the next generation is ready to tell their own truth without erasing the past.

Rediscover your family firm’s real marketing history — and use it.

✅ Download the 5‑minute guide: What Old Brochures Can Still Teach You
✅ Browse the FAQs if rebranding feels stuck or loaded
✅ Talk to your team about what your old slogans were really saying (and what the new ones must dare to say now).

Because branding isn’t just about vision.
It’s about inheritance.

And sometimes, the best way forward is to open the drawer, together.