In 1837, blacksmith John Deere built a steel plough that helped farmers cut through tough prairie soil and that solution-led engineering still guides the company today. Brands often feel they must chop and change their identities and straplines to keep up with the times — perhaps because they never really got it right to begin with… or because a new brand manager needs to justify themselves… or because it’s indeed the right thing to do.
John Deere is one of those rare examples of a brand that got it right long ago and has the confidence to stick with it — the leaping deer trademark was registered in 1876, the green and yellow livery insightfully symbolising the sun on the prairie was designed nearly a century ago, and the iconic tagline ‘Nothing runs like a Deere’ has been running since 1972. That same year, Coca-Cola was airing ‘It’s the Real Thing’ and McDonald’s was using the line ‘You Deserve a Break Today’… since then, each of these brands have had over two dozen different campaigns and many would argue those messages from the 1970’s were some of their best (and dare I say still relevant today?).
The Furrow magazine which launched in 1895 is still published in 40 countries and must mean that John Deere was one of the first pioneers of ‘branded content’. Its ability to continuously innovate and modernise over 175 years whilst remaining steady with its brand is remarkable and rare. John Deere has earned every bit of the deeply held loyalty it enjoys from farmers all over the world.
Nothing runs like a Deere, that’s for sure.
