Brand systems get treated as a visual identity exercise. Logos, type, colour, maybe a packaging rule. That framing is what makes them so easy to deprioritise when budget tightens.
The real job a brand system does is retention. It is the consistency that makes the customer’s second purchase feel like a continuation rather than a fresh decision. Strip the system away and you make every repeat purchase a first purchase again. With all the persuasion cost that implies.
Ikonic Beer’s limited-edition packaging only worked because it sat inside a system that already taught the shelf what Ikonic looked like. The “new release” read as continuation, not noise.