06:00, May 5, 1961: Crammed into the Freedom 7 capsule, preparing for take-off, Alan Shepard (the astronaut and soon-to-be first American in space) famously said to himself,

"Dear Lord, please don't let me f*** this up" 
 

(... or something to that effect).

What would become known as "Shepard's Prayer" is a common sentiment for rising business leaders, but one shared almost universally by new CEOs and CMOs taking the wheel of established brands.
 

No one wants to be at the helm when a multi-generational brand begins to fade — or worse, is legitimately challenged and eclipsed by newer, more relevant competitors.
For CEOs or CMOs inheriting the flight controls for an established brand, here are some things to remember:
 

#1: You have unique assets at your disposal — years of heritage, meaning, connection to people, places, and experiences — that can't be easily replicated by newer upstarts. Be sure to dig into that marrow. It's like precious fossil fuel for your brand, and can be converted into momentum, power and competitive edge with the right effort.

#2: Don't throw the marrow out with the bathwater. Be careful not to chase momentum at the expense of what truly sets your brand apart. It can be tempting to manufacture buzz with tactical stunts or to chase sales with constant promotions, but eroding your brand equity will leave you with a commodity, competing with the newbies on features and price.

#3: Beware the siren call of nostalgia. While old brand affinities and memories can be rich fodder, nostalgia as an emotional territory is a pretty shallow well for brands and can root your brand and purpose in past associations. Pulling forward the most timeless elements of your brand to assert timely relevance today is critical to ensuring many more laps around the sun.
 

#4: Get to know and then enlist the embedded culture, people, and language behind the brand. This is obviously true of any company you lead, but people at heritage companies are a special breed, and often have a deep sense of responsibility and loyalty to the brand. They can make or break your efforts to re-energize the brand. Note: you'll stack the deck in your favor if you honor points #1-3 above.

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​With these points in mind, all you fresh captains of vintage vessels, godspeed and enjoy the drive. And consider yourself lucky, with the wealth of measurement and analytics tools at your disposal today. Commander Shepard didn’t even have a windshield!