[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/01\/24\/cobra-kais-formula-for-success-a-lesson-in-rebranding\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/01\/24\/cobra-kais-formula-for-success-a-lesson-in-rebranding\/","headline":"Cobra Kai\u2019s formula for success: A lesson in rebranding","name":"Cobra Kai\u2019s formula for success: A lesson in rebranding","description":"Cobra Kai, the wildly successful reboot of1984's Karate Kid movie, provides lessons to brands on how to resonate with a broad audience.","datePublished":"2022-01-24","dateModified":"2024-12-18","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/lisa-james\/#Person","name":"Lisa James","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/lisa-james\/","identifier":180,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/69771d0f70c4770359dbb8a02fdcd9c5118d2c58c3ff8b62f9055d409ea65e4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/69771d0f70c4770359dbb8a02fdcd9c5118d2c58c3ff8b62f9055d409ea65e4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Cobra-kai_1200x375.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Cobra-kai_1200x375.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/01\/24\/cobra-kais-formula-for-success-a-lesson-in-rebranding\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-engagement-58\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/customer-experience-general\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},"Employee Experience & Engagement",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/marketing-general\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},"Media, sports, and entertainment","Real Talk: Mental Health, Well-Being, and Laughter",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/social-media\/","name":"Social Media","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_media","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q202833"]}],"wordCount":1066,"keywords":["Brand Advocates","Brand Marketing","Generation X","Generation Z","Personalization"],"articleBody":"Cobra Kai never dies. Set more than 30 years after the All-Valley Karate Tournament in 1984\u2019s “The Karate Kid“ movie, the show, “Cobra Kai” is continuing to break Netflix streaming records. It’s described by the Karate Kid himself, actor Ralph Macchio, as a \u201cKarate Soap Opera.\u201dAfter two seasons on YouTube Red, Cobra Kai was picked up by Netflix for a third season and became a streaming sensation almost overnight with an estimate of 41 million viewers. Season 4 dropped on December 31 and trended No. 1 on Netflix in the US for two weeks, with over 120 million viewing hours within the first three days.In a decade of reboot exhaustion where everything old is made new again to the point of ad nauseum, how was Cobra Kai able to resurrect the Karate Kid Franchise with a series that’s both nostalgic and novel?      The Disney formula for success: How to keep your brand magic                Disney is ranked among the best, most powerful, and most recognizable brands in the world. Discover the Disney formula for success to help your brand do the same.      What Cobra Kai teaches marketersOn the surface, the show’s success may not seem to have much to do with product marketing. But as it turns out, Cobra Kai actually reveals important lessons for marketers revitalizing a brand.Don’t over-segment your audience; appeal to common areas of interestDevelop realistic personas that resonateThink outside the boxRely on the power of customer advocacy      The Ted Lasso football pitch: Leadership lessons for professionals                Ted Lasso leadership is all the rage, with good reason. Learn about leading with empathy, kindness, owning mistakes, and helping others grow.      The importance of broad appeal\u201cIt is people, not the signs, that guide us back to the right path.\u201d \u2013 KumikoCobra Kai\u2019s fanbase spans generations. Anyone who\u2019s seen the original Karate Kid films over the decades has a reason to tune into the show. However, for the show to be successful, it needed to bring in new viewers from new generations. This meant expanding The Karate Kid lore with new characters that viewers care about.Cobra Kai capitalized on that broad audience appeal by creating two distinct character groups 1) grown-up versions of the original Karate Kid characters, like Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, and 2) a new generation of teenagers who call Daniel and Johnny sensei.Cobra Kai serves up plenty of flashbacks to go along with their nostalgia story points, so new viewers don’t need any knowledge of the original movies to follow the storyline while original fans enjoy all the throwbacks. Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z find plenty of relatable characters and plotlines.Often companies over segment, minimizing entry points or narrowing their focus so much that they ignore what could be a larger market opportunity. As much as marketers would like to speak uniquely to each individual and hit all their needs and wants, there’s still benefit in finding common areas of interest.Instead of microscopically targeting segments by overemphasizing differences, optimize your value proposition and find commonalities in your segments, while still addressing unique preferences and desires.      Generational payment methods: How Gen Z, millennials, and boomers compare                How do Gen Zers, millennials, and boomers compare when it comes to generational payment methods? New data reveals intriguing insights that can help you provide smarter payment experiences.      Cobra Kai: Make it real and relatable\u201cKarate isn\u2019t all about punching and kicking. It\u2019s actually more about balance.\u201d ~ Daniel LaRussoWhat Cobra Kai does so well is that it puts the focus on telling a great story, like its predecessor. The Karate Kid followed the standard story framework:A character: Daniel LaRussoWith a problem: moves from New Jersey to LA, where he doesn’t fit inMeets a Guide who understands his fear: Mister MiyagiAnd gives him a plan: teaches him KarateThat calls him to action: Daniel enters a Karate tournament and stands up to his bulliesThat leads him to Success: He wins the All-Valley Karate tournament against his bully, Johnny LawrencePicking up the story decades after Daniel faced off against Johnny, Cobra Kai is more complex than its predecessor franchise. The show shares a multi-generational saga that at its core is a quest for balance for all those involved. Cobra Kai gives fresh energy to an old story instead of trying to simply recreate old storylines.Too often, brands create personas and messaging based on more caricature type people than actual living people. In Cobra Kai, we see compelling heartfelt storylines, many times wrapped in humor, that the core audiences can connect to, root for, and keep coming back for more.      It was almost like a dream: Creating content to inspire + transform                When it matters most, people will either turn to you or from you; no amount of money can overpower the human instinct, and it's humans who run businesses. The content you create must resonate with them, full stop.      Take risks, and let your customers do the talking\u201cJust because something\u2019s been around longer doesn\u2019t make it better.\u201d \u2013 Johnny LawrenceThe show had a lot of odds stacked against it. When the initial trailer dropped in 2018, fans of the Karate Kid shared their skepticism. So how and why did it succeed?Before the show was bought by Netflix, Cobra Kai launched on YouTube Red, which is owned by Google. There were plenty of YouTube ads around the show, but the company could have easily dumped millions more into ads as its sole marketing strategy. However, they knew that wouldn\u2019t be enough to sustain viewership and drive subscriptions.The prevailing opinion is that the show succeeded because of word of mouth. Early screenings of the first few episodes along with active participation on social by showrunners promoting the show to fans and sharing clips of the series, contributed to early viewing numbers and loyal fans.Brands who have depended on their tried-and-true marketing strategies may be hesitant to take risks, but your customers will always be your best marketers. Rely on the power of the customer experience. Deliver a great product to the right audience and they will be the best driver to your brand.Remember, Cobra Kai never dies.  Tariffs. Supply chains.Customer expectations. C-suite expectations. Everything you need for retail success, none of the fluff.Download the market analysis\u00a0HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2022","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"01","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/\/01\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"24","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/\/01\/\/24\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Cobra Kai\u2019s formula for success: A lesson in rebranding","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2022\/01\/24\/cobra-kais-formula-for-success-a-lesson-in-rebranding\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]