By Charlotte Black, Chief Strategy Officer at Saffron Brand Consultants
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights shows that refreshing a brand isn’t about surface change – it’s about updating how the story is told (with the help of big budget PR campaigns). The novel’s emotional heart hasn’t changed; what’s changed is the framing. A bold visual style (potentially inspired by Lee McQueen and Tim Burton), a Charli xcx soundtrack and strong creative choices bring a 19th-century story into today’s culture. That balance – staying true to the core while updating the expression is where brand renewal works.
We’ve seen this many times before. Fashion houses regularly reinvent themselves by tapping into youth culture while keeping their heritage intact. LEGO came back from near bankruptcy by returning to its belief in creative play, then expanding into films, gaming and partnerships. Guinness continues to modernise its advertising while staying rooted in craft and character.
The lesson for marketers is simple: protect what makes you distinctive, but express it in a way that feels current. Updating a brand shouldn’t water it down – it should make it more relevant to more people, or the right people more often. And even polarising reactions can be healthy. When people are talking, culture is moving – and brands that move with it grow.
Ben Cleaver, Founder & Strategy Partner at BigSmall
Marketers shouldn’t try to “Wuthering Heights” their brands. The more interesting lesson from Wuthering Heights is why the original work by Emily Brontë has sustained such iconic status in the first place. Emerald Fennell isn’t rescuing an outdated story, she’s re-lensing a timeless one. Nearly 180 years on, the novel still resonates because its core themes of obsession, love, status and wildness are human truths that don’t expire. What changes is the framing.
That’s the real takeaway for heritage brands. If you’re refreshing one, don’t start at the surface. Tinkering with the logo, tone of voice, palette or campaign line is often cosmetic and risks feeling insubstantial. Start with the emotional engine: what belief made this matter in the first place? What tension does it sit in? What does it make people feel? Most legacy brands don’t need reinvention, they need rediscovery. Over time, the original fire can get obscured; the job is to strip back to what still burns and let a new audience experience it in their own language. That’s how brands stay relevant without losing themselves.
