tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946593154466917122011-12-01T12:03:09.499+02:00You learn more from failure than you can from success. But this lessons are deadly serious. Read them, enjoy them and learn from them.Cashberrynoreply@blogger.comBlogger891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-18497719796209056642007-05-08T19:22:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:27:49.087+03:00

Last dance saloon?In the 1990s Liverpool nightclub Cream grew from being a small intimate venue catering for around 400 clubbers every Saturday night, to being one of the UK’s first ‘super clubs’ regularly attracting thousands of devotees from all over the country. It quickly capitalized on its success by launching merchandising material, setting up its own record label in partnership with Virgin

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-83047436251929974652007-05-07T18:07:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:11:43.324+03:00

When a brand falls asleepIn 2002, the Ovaltine brand celebrated its 98th birthday. That same year, it closed its UK factory and was forced to admit it had finally lost its main market. The Ovaltine brand was put up for sale and, at the time of writing, no interested buyers have emerged.First produced by a Swiss food company in 1904, the malt drink with added vitamins became the UK’s favourite

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-53151633511135911502007-05-06T14:08:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:10:51.187+03:00

Invented in 1912, LifeSavers are one of the favourite brands of sweet in the United States. Concentrating on different flavours of ‘hard roll candies’, the firm produces nearly 3 million rolls every day. Their popularity is also evidenced by the fact that more than 88 million miniature rolls of LifeSavers are given out each year to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.However, when the company produced

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-55600226991148688772007-05-06T01:25:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:30:44.738+03:00

Helping the competitionAlthough most people failures are a result of unscrupulous decisions or vicious personality clashes, on rare occasions people let their brands down despite having the best of intentions. This is what happened to Michael P Schall’s brand, Guiltless Gourmet, when he gave away the secrets of his success to his chief competition.In the 1990s, Guiltless Gourmet was a small

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-27334391319761943002007-05-05T01:33:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:34:49.912+03:00

Undoing the brandIn September 2001, UK mobile phone operator BT Cellnet announced it was getting rid of its brand name in favour of a new international identity.The decision followed a continuing drop in its market share of call revenues. Furthermore, BT Cellnet’s arch-rival Orange (often admired for its brand name) increased its revenues and knocked BT Cellnet into third place, behind both

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-45759067339493662112007-05-04T01:47:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:48:27.717+03:00

From pop to flopThe UK reality TV show, Popstars, was the first programme to document the making of a band from obscurity to pop superstardom. The aim was to create a pop ‘brand’ that would not only be able to sell albums and singles, but also a wide variety of merchandise.Hear’Say was the end product – consisting of brand members Noel Sullivan, Danny Foster, Suzanne Shaw, Myleene Klass and Kym

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-3885459483558042042007-05-04T01:34:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:41:03.396+03:00

The salmonella incidentWhen the UK Central Public Health Laboratory made the connection between Farley’s infant milk and salmonella in 1985, the story made the headlines. The product was recalled immediately at a cost of £8 million. Farley’s parent company Glaxo Smith-Kline was forced to put Farley’s into liquidation and sold its two plants to high-street chemist Boots for £18 million.Boots had

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-75201896563605603952007-05-03T18:25:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:28:11.663+03:00

Going up in smokeMoulinex, the French-based electrical household appliance manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy in September 2001. The action placed the brand in immediate jeopardy, but was seen as necessary. ‘If they want to keep going but the shareholders wouldn’t agree, they had to do this, otherwise it would have meant liquidation,’ said one analyst at a Paris-based brokerage.As the company

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-61864623202769469322007-05-02T01:43:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:44:50.510+03:00

From catwalk to catfightsAlthough it eventually proved to be a flop, Planet Hollywood spawned a number of imitators. David Hasselhoff tried to launch a Baywatch Café chain complete with waitresses in red swimsuits. Magician David Copperfield reportedly ploughed millions into a magic-themed restaurant chain which later vanished in a puff of smoke. Steven Spielberg invested in Dive, a

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-5512448960373580072007-05-01T18:17:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:17:58.556+03:00

A dog of a brandRover has been making cars since 1904 and contributed its share of technological advances – the Rover gas turbine car in 1950 and the four-wheel drive T3 in 1956 with its fibreglass bodywork.The P4, P5 and P6 series became hallmarks of British motoring throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with the P4 affectionately known as ‘Auntie’ Rover. During the prosperous post-war years, Britons

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-27198161781759230612007-04-30T19:18:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:19:16.815+03:00

Below the comfort zoneLevi’s is, without doubt, a classic brand. Originally produced by a Bavarian immigrant in the dying years of the battle for the American West, Levi’s jeans now have an iconic significance across the globe.Indeed, in many ways Levi’s have come to define the very essence of the word ‘brand’ better than any other product. As advertising journalist Bob Garfield has written ‘in

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-49963823622736289782007-04-29T18:40:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:44:31.766+03:00

Let sleeping brands lieIn the 1960s Nova magazine was Britain’s ‘style bible’, and had a massive impact on the fashion of the era. Alongside the fashion pages, it carried serious and often controversial articles on subjects such as feminism, homosexuality and racism. At the time, the magazine was unique, but by the 1970s other magazines started to clone the Nova concept. Nova itself soon started

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-26742902534125538652007-04-28T14:37:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:45:59.852+03:00

The party’s overA magazine ad depicting a man vomiting into a dustbin may not be the most conventional tactic to use in order to sell sportswear, but then boo.com was hardly the most conventional company. The September 1999 advertising campaign, in which this image appeared, was designed to let everyone know that the first global sportswear site had arrived, in style, and that it was about to

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-24776424445815347882007-04-28T01:44:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:46:02.526+03:00

In 1998, Payless Drug Store, a regional chain of chemists operating across western USA, changed its name to Rite Aid Corporation. The name change required several million dollars spent on advertising just to gain a level of local awareness equivalent to the previous brand name. The reason for the change was the acquisition of the Payless Drug Store by the Rite Aid Corporation, which owned its own

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-43994777238576069862007-04-27T18:14:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:15:41.107+03:00

Failing to hit the present tastePear’s Soap was not, by most accounts, a conventional brand failure. Indeed, it was one of the longest-running brands in marketing history.The soap was named after London hairdresser Andrew Pears, who patented its transparent design in 1789. During the reign of Queen Victoria, Pear’s Soap became one of the first products in the UK to gain a coherent brand identity

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-38191008933705418372007-04-24T14:33:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:37:11.454+03:00

One of the best ways to generate publicity for a brand is to deploy unconventional tactics. For instance, when London nightclub the Ministry of Sound projected its logo onto the side of the Houses of Parliament, the media attention was immense. Indeed, it was considered such a successful trick that a few years later FHM promoted its ‘100 Sexiest Women of the Year’ campaign with the same tactic,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29602118104682199522007-04-23T19:20:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:22:22.587+03:00

A brand on the brinkOne of the United States’ largest chain of discount stores, Kmart filed for bankruptcy on 22 January 2002. The action came after poor Christmas sales and the company’s inability to pay its major suppliers. The bankruptcy filing was viewed by the US business media as the culmination of a series of mistakes under Kmart’s CEO Chuck Conaway, who took over in May 2000 and launched

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-69004523127832117902007-04-22T14:30:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:33:16.222+03:00

Problem? What problem?In 1997, a professor of mathematics found a glitch in Intel’s Pentium chip. He discovered that the mathematical functions for the chip’s complicated formula were not consistently accurate. The professor decided to send an article about his findings to a small academic newsgroup. Word spread through the university community and the editor of a trade title caught hold of the

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-44054693754903764522007-04-21T01:41:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:44:30.072+03:00

Same identity, different nameAt the risk of understating the case, nuclear energy has always had something of an image problem. When incidents happen at nuclear plants this ‘problem’ becomes a nightmare.For instance, when massive amounts of radioactive material were releasedfrom the UK’s Windscale atomic works in 1957, following a serious fire, the consequences were disastrous. The local

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29451792557170397182007-04-20T14:29:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:30:10.445+03:00

Not quite a net gainIn late 1999, computer manufacturer Dell launched the Web PC. The computer was small (a mere ten inches in height) and came in five different colours. The aim of the computer was to simplify the experience of surfing the Internet, while at the same time being attractive. ‘The quality of the customer’s experience will be the defining source of loyalty in the Internet era,’

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-47989300368173412012007-04-19T01:46:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:47:37.479+03:00

When British Airways went through an expensive rebranding exercise in 1996, it couldn’t have picked a worse time. The media contrasted the costly makeover with the ‘cost-saving’ redundancies announced shortly afterwards.There was also criticism about the nature of the new identity. The airline had abandoned the Union Jack colours on the tail-fin, and replaced them with a series of different

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-31552141580319569962007-04-18T19:29:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:30:18.983+03:00

From grannies to handcuffsHow does a once supremely successful brand descend into failure? The answer, in the case of Yardley cosmetics, is by failing to move with the times. Yardley was founded in London in 1770 by William Yardley, a purveyor of swords, spurs and buckles for the aristocracy. He took over a lavender soap business from his son-in-law William Cleaver who had gambled away his

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-23195755526043492892007-04-14T14:16:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:16:55.268+03:00

In what must be one of the most bizarre brand extensions ever Colgate decided to use its name on a range of food products called Colgate’s Kitchen Entrees.Needless to say, the range did not take off and never left US soil. The idea must have been that consumers would eat their Colgate meal, then brush their teeth with Colgate toothpaste. The trouble was that for most people the name Colgate does

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-50822215553945179502007-04-11T01:48:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:49:03.516+03:00

Remember MicroPro? In the 1980s, and even at the beginning of the 1990s, MicroPro made leading word processing software product, WordStar. The program was even heralded as ‘one of the greatest single software efforts in the history of computing’ by the widely respected technology expert, John C Dvorak.Because of the popularity of the WordStar product, MicroPro rebranded themselves WordStar

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29221748596126918012007-04-06T01:35:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:41:08.701+03:00

How the ‘beautiful dream’ went sourIn 1998, a new UK digital TV channel was introduced which aimed to take on Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB and convert millions of middle-England viewers to pay-television with a new platform accessible via set-top boxes – digital terrestrial television. In 2002, however, it went out of business.‘We thought we could take on Sky, through its Achilles heel: it was the

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-7024424641169483812007-03-26T14:11:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:14:07.539+03:00

Pond’s, the popular brand of face cream, didn’t prove to be quite so popular when it applied its name to toothpaste. In a blind test environment, people were not able to differentiate Pond’s toothpaste from that of Colgate.However, when the Pond’s name and imagery were attached to the toothpaste, no-one was interested. Although Pond’s had successfully extended its brand before (into soap products

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-49411427890714886292007-03-26T01:50:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:51:04.185+03:00

Bottled water for petsThe worst of all bad ideas must surely be the Thirsty Cat! and Thirsty Dog! brands of bottled water designed for pampered pets. Although the water came in such ‘thirst-quenching’ flavours as Crispy Beef and Tangy Fish, pets and their owners remained unimpressed.

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-24405752798336284342007-03-24T01:29:00.000+02:002007-05-04T01:33:59.013+03:00

The success of many brands is determined by the right partnership. This is certainly the case where one product is dependent on another. For instance, software developers and computer manufacturers need each other, and can often achieve better results if they join forces. Similarly, if you produce tyres you need to build and sustain good relations with a car company.Any tyre manufacturer who can

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-58321204893973340222007-03-17T14:24:00.000+02:002007-05-06T14:25:57.699+03:00

Why another protocol?In order to gain public awareness new technologies are now promoted as brands, by technological companies and organizations. However, often those technologies that receive the most hype die an early death while those that are launched with no fanfare gain mass acceptance.Nowhere has this been more evident than with mobile phone technology. In Europe, the major mobile phone

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-85334849872850030132007-03-14T01:51:00.000+02:002007-05-06T01:53:37.626+03:00

Frito-Lay is the leading brand of salty snacks in the United States. And what do people want to accompany a salty snack? A soft, thirst-quenching drink.So what could be a better idea than Frito-Lay Lemonade? Although it may have been seen like a logical brand extension Frito-Lay Lemonade bombed.After all, Frito-Lay was a brand which made people thirsty, and therefore is the exact opposite of

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-2344231289872811832007-02-09T17:16:00.000+02:002007-05-19T22:58:40.542+03:00

Originaly by By Al Ries and Laura RiesThe Law of The WordA brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.Volvo owns the word “safety”. Mercedes owns the word “prestige”. BMW owns the word “driving” and the idea of being fun to drive.Kleenex is tissue. People say “I need a Q-Tip”, “Make me a Xerox copy” and “Please hand me the Scotch tape”. These brands own the word in their

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-9099605346787473532007-02-08T17:14:00.000+02:002007-05-19T22:57:33.027+03:00

Originaly by By Al Ries and Laura RiesThe Law of AdvertisingOnce born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy.After the initial explosion of publicity, a brand needs to shift its strategy from publicity to advertising. If nations have a defense budget, a leading brand needs advertising as its defense budget. The advertising budget is an insurance against attacks on the minds of consumers by

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-11171269791893541782007-02-07T17:13:00.000+02:002007-05-19T22:58:22.657+03:00

Originaly by By Al Ries and Laura RiesThe Law of PublicityThe birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.Anita Roddick built The Body Shop into a major brand with no advertising at all. She used publicity, communicating her ideas about the environment, indigenous people, and animal testing. It was endless newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television interviews that made

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-73256167183180206412007-02-06T17:11:00.000+02:002007-05-19T22:58:02.984+03:00

Originaly by By Al Ries and Laura RiesThe Law of ContractionA brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. There used to be a time when every neighborhood had a small coffee shop where you could get everything from breakfast, lunch, dinner, to hamburgers, hotdogs, pancakes, and ice cream, and of course, coffee. This was before Howard Schultz had a simply wonderful idea: why not focus on

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-90773664367977678912007-02-05T17:03:00.000+02:002007-05-19T22:43:49.257+03:00

Originaly by By Al Ries and Laura RiesThe power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope.If you want to build a powerful brand in the minds of consumers, you need to contract your brand, not expand it.Putting your brand name on everything diminishes the brand name’s power. Take a look at Chevrolet, a company that used to be the leader in the automobile industry. It expanded its brand

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-8335243183435395282007-02-04T01:23:00.000+02:002007-05-04T01:26:03.282+03:00

RJ Reynolds’ attempt to create smokeless cigarettes (see Chapter 3) was not the tobacco company’s only brand failure. In the 1990s, RJR got into big trouble over one of its campaigns to promote its leading brand of cigarettes, Camel. The campaign featured a character called Joe Camel, a cartoon camel who wore trendy clothes and sunglasses and who had a cigarette dangling from his mouth.In 1991

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-49158826448004807822007-02-04T01:17:00.000+02:002007-05-04T01:20:34.435+03:00

In 1986, Gerber, the German baby food manufacturer, made a critical PR mistake. When incidents of glass shards were found in its jars of baby food, Gerber remained tight-lipped and failed to issue a recall. This decision invited a lot of criticism with articles in Business Week, Newsweek and Time openly attacking the company on ethical grounds. Although the pieces of glass had not caused any

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-48709442817726823752006-12-12T12:35:00.000+02:002006-12-14T12:36:28.968+02:00

Procter & Gamble’s toxic shock In 1980, Procter & Gamble launched a super-absorbent tampon called Rely. However, the super-absorbency of the product was a result of a synthetic substance called carboxymethyl cellulose, which would sometimes leave a synthetic residue inside a woman’s body after the tampon had been removed. ‘From the moment super-absorbent tampons hit the market there were

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-47859638325911041592006-12-11T12:27:00.000+02:002006-12-14T12:30:35.194+02:00

Poisoning a brand Among the most dreaded situation for any food brand, an outbreak of food poisoning ranks pretty high. For Snow Brand, Japan’s premier dairy foods company, 2000 was the year when that nightmare came true, in the most disastrous way. After consuming milk or related products made by Snow Brand, 14,800 people, mostly in western Japan, suddenly came down with food poisoning. The

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-20937345224804745412006-12-11T12:10:00.000+02:002006-12-14T12:12:13.407+02:00

Radion Bright orange boxes aren’t enough Many of the brands in this section have failed because they were too far away from what the consumer wanted, but sometimes products fail because they aren’t different enough from other popular products. This is certainly the case of Radion washing powder. Along with Pear’s Soap, Radion was one of the many Unilever brands for the chop when the

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-26680522430774499492006-12-10T11:58:00.000+02:002006-12-14T12:03:07.735+02:00

Country Time Cider Country Time Lemonade Drink was launched in 1976 by Kraft foods as a powder mix, and soon became the top-selling lemonade product sold through US grocery and convenience stores. It successfully extended its line with Country Time Pink Lemonade, which was introduced in 1977. However, when the decision was made to extend the well-known Country Time brand to apple cider, the

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-34156268236840248982006-12-09T11:49:00.000+02:002006-12-14T11:52:51.440+02:00

More than copiers? Xerox is one of the branding success stories of the 20th century. As with many other similar successes, the company didn’t just create a product, it invented a whole new category. Indeed, such is Xerox’s achievement that its brand name has become a part of everyday speech. In the United States, xerox is a verb, used when people are copying paper. Chester Carlson was the man

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-68436419315257917912006-12-08T11:42:00.000+02:002006-12-14T11:44:25.713+02:00

The ever-expanding brand In the 1970s Miller Brewing Company faced something of an image problem. For years it had been positioning its core brand, Miller High Life, as ‘the champagne of beers’. Jazz musicians had been used in advertising campaigns to endorse the beer and to consolidate its sophisticated image, but the results were increasingly disappointing. When Business Week profiled

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-52103371674804057232006-12-08T11:36:00.000+02:002006-12-14T11:37:57.067+02:00

Where are the pink ladies? In the 1950s, US car manufacturers discovered a new target customer, the female car buyer. Up until that point, cars had been viewed as a male preserve. However, an increase in prosperity combined with the levelling of the sexes that occurred in the years following World War II managed to change all that. Women wouldn’t want any old car though. Oh no. They’d want a

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-20559160217649292562006-12-07T11:31:00.000+02:002006-12-14T11:32:47.723+02:00

The drink that lost its cool Rasna Limited is one of the leading soft drinks companies in India, and made its name in the concentrate market. However, when it has tried to stray from its specialized niche, it hasn’t had much success. When Rasna experimented with a fizzy fruit drink called Oranjolt, the brand bombed even before it could take off. Oranjolt was a fruit drink in which carbonation

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-21798651075867735182006-12-06T13:25:00.000+02:002006-12-06T13:26:31.007+02:00

The power of the logo Tommy Hilfiger is one of the world’s best-loved designer clothing brands. During the 1990s Tommy Hilfiger moved from being a small, niche brand targeting upper class US consumers to becoming a global powerhouse with broad youth appeal. But then, in 2000, the brand was suddenly in trouble. From a high of US $40 per share in May 1999, Tommy Hilfiger’s share price fell to US

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-58201944647887099532006-12-06T13:19:00.000+02:002006-12-06T13:20:55.930+02:00

When honesty is not the best policy One of the most popular and influential books ever written about marketing is The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing¸ written by Al Ries and Jack Trout and first published in 1993. Their fifteenth ‘law’ is ‘the law of candour’. This states that if a company admits a negative aspect about a brand, the consumer will think more highly about that brand because of

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-20069942197548059442006-12-05T13:10:00.000+02:002006-12-06T13:21:13.161+02:00

No matter how careful a company is, bad things can happen to its brands. The part that is within the company’s control is how it decides to handle crises when they occur. The company most respected for its crisis management capabilities is Johnson & Johnson. When a problem emerges with a Johnson & Johnson brand, the company addresses it immediately, and never tries to cover it up. For instance,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-89306824088740821372006-12-04T12:34:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:38:35.693+02:00

A post office by any other name When the UK state-owned Post Office Group decided to change its brand identity, a new name was the first on the shopping list. The reason for the brand makeover was partly to do with the fact that the 300-year-old Post Office Group was no longer simply a mail-only organization. It had logistics and customer call centre operations, and was planning a number of

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-82746723896208041562006-12-04T12:31:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:32:47.049+02:00

Shredding a reputation If the Enron scandal proved anything, it was the interconnected nature of the modern business world. After all, Enron had a lot of corporate connections, particularly in its home state of Texas. ‘Within two or three degrees of separation, virtually everybody would have a connection to Enron,’ said Richard Murray, director for the University of Houston’s Centre for Public

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-74734504101799261632006-12-04T12:25:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:28:44.296+02:00

Failing the truth Little remains to be said about the rise and scandalous fall of Texan energy giant Enron. In the relatively short space of 15 years, Enron rose from nowhere to become the seventh largest company in the United States, and the most well-known energy supplier in the world. It boasted over 21,000 employees and had a presence in more than 40 countries. As well as generating

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-75412559969458396872006-12-04T12:23:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:25:04.050+02:00

Hallmark greeting cards have proven immensely popular in both the UK and the United States. Catering for every special occasion – from birthdays to weddings and from Mother’s Day to passing your driving test – the cards are sent by thousands of people every single day of the year. The signature (or ‘hallmark’) of Hallmark cards is the ‘special message’. The advantage of buying from Hallmark is

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-50054578201710710922006-12-03T12:17:00.000+02:002006-12-14T12:22:50.243+02:00

Ending in tragedy In the 1980s, Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am, was one of the most famous brands of airline on the planet. For more than 60 years it had pioneered transocean and intercontinental flying. Having begun life in 1927 with a few aircraft and a single route from Key West to Havana, Pan Am came to represent US commercial aviation policy overseas. However, in the late 1980s

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-15514301135279334802006-12-03T12:16:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:18:07.253+02:00

As brands go, McDonald’s is a biggie. Along with Coca-Cola and Marlboro, it is one of the few brands which is recognized in almost every country. As McDonald’s itself proclaims, its chain of fast food restaurants represents the ‘most successful food service organization in the world.’ There are now approximately 25,000 McDonald’s restaurants across the globe, catering for around 40 million people

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-31304485841945937482006-12-02T12:42:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:45:16.206+02:00

Failing to stay ahead Can a brand become too successful? The short answer, of course, is no it cannot. Is it possible to conceive that the success and popularity of a brand such as Coca-Cola or McDonald’s could become a weakness? Surely not. And yet, the strongest brands are also those which are the most tied down. Consumers know what they want from Coca-Cola (cola) and McDonald’s (fast food)

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-9610636643053456622006-12-02T12:09:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:11:49.307+02:00

Confusing the customer Heinz’s All Natural Cleaning Vinegar was the food-maker’s first non-food item. The company, which had been founded by Henry Heinz in 1869, had made its name selling its ‘57 Varieties’ – good value, pre-packaged food such as baked beans, soup and ketchup – and decided in the 1980s to extend its brand into other household goods. First off the mark was the All Natural

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-67677491624915294972006-12-01T12:05:00.000+02:002006-12-04T12:07:31.405+02:00

When branding goes ga ga Baby-food manufacturer Gerber is responsible for one of the most frequently referenced brand failures of all time. Alongside Coca-Cola’s New Coke and Harley Davidson’s perfume, Gerber’s attempt to crack the adult food market is certainly one of the main entrants in the branding Hall of Shame. The idea was to produce small servings of food for single adults – such as

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-3344082583485797482006-11-30T10:45:00.000+02:002006-11-30T10:48:25.136+02:00

Live by the category, die by the category If digital photography represents a difficult challenge for Kodak, it represented a near impossible one for Polaroid. In October 2001, after years of falling sales and drastic cost cuts, the firm filed for bankruptcy. Although the company was eventually purchased in July 2002 by the private equity arm of Bank One, many believe the glory days of

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-15453980868762682312006-11-29T13:06:00.000+02:002006-11-30T13:09:26.728+02:00

Big egos, weak brand Celebrity endorsements can help greatly in boosting sales of a product or service. For instance, when Oprah Winfrey recommended books via her branded book club, they were guaranteed bestseller status. Some brands also benefit from having their founder evolve into a celebrity, à la Richard Branson. Then there are cases of celebrities turning their hand to business

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-31005482223396596742006-11-27T11:14:00.000+02:002006-11-27T11:16:03.433+02:00

Is there life beyond bananas? Chiquita has been associated with bananas since 1944, the year the fruit supplier was founded. Indeed, this was the brand’s original intention. Not only to get the public to eat more bananas, but to get them to want to buy only those with the Chiquita sticker on them. However, in recent times the banana association has been something of a mixed blessing, to say

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-36773944611714812692006-11-27T10:15:00.000+02:002006-11-27T10:16:16.406+02:00

The leather substitute In the mid-1960s, chemical giant DuPont invested millions in the promotion of Corfam, a synthetic substitute for leather. But although Corfam was launched in 1963, it had been conceived many years before. Indeed, in the late 1930s researchers at DuPont had discovered ways to make leather-like materials and had experimented with various possible uses. One of the most

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-83308728462109442252006-11-26T10:51:00.000+02:002006-11-27T11:08:19.313+02:00

Strange but trueHarley Davidson perfume. Coors spring water. Both of these were doomed to failure because of the brand name’s attachment to an unrelated product. However, the prize for the most bizarre brand extension must go to Bic. The company, best known for producing disposable pens, thought its brand name was strong enough to be applied to other categories. Indeed, it had already achieved

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-55485706471788911072006-11-25T10:26:00.000+02:002006-11-27T10:58:59.857+02:00

The ultimate bad idea Cigarette manufacturers have often thought that the best way to build market share is to come up with new twists on the standard cigarette formula. For instance, Marlboro has had dozens of different varieties in its history, including Marlboro Menthol, Marlboro Lights and Marlboro Medium. Normally, cigarettes produce new varieties based on different levels of tar. For

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-50149382663622849252006-11-23T11:48:00.000+02:002006-11-23T11:49:40.530+02:00

By Roman GolovatskyThe opportunities available to the owners of exclusive rights are a constant source of temptation, not least for those seeking an unfair advantage over the competition.It seems that one of the most problematic is the issue of trademark protection. The aforementioned persons would register someone else's, perhaps renowned, trademark in their name, using different sorts of

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-72446526168360586142006-11-22T12:03:00.000+02:002006-11-22T12:05:45.243+02:00

A brand too far Many brands fail when they move into inappropriate categories. For instance, Harley Davidson perfume proved to be an extension too far. Virgin, however, is one company that seems to be able to apply its brand name to anything. Although Richard Branson’s empire began as a record label, signing groundbreaking acts such as the Sex Pistols, it now encompasses virtually everything

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-62770509868095066672006-11-21T16:43:00.000+02:002006-11-21T16:49:03.021+02:00

Don’t say a word Many companies and organizations have had to deal with a crisis during their history. Only a very few, however, come to represent corporate incompetence and irresponsibility through one critical event. Oil company Exxon is among them. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground and began spilling oil off the coast of Alaska. Within a very short period of time,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-7024638444549279012006-11-21T16:38:00.000+02:002006-11-21T16:42:59.458+02:00

Failing to understand the essence of the brandIn 1994, food giant the Quaker Oats Company bought a quirky soft-drink brand called Snapple for US $1.7 billion. The company felt confident that the drink brand was worth the price tag, because they had already achieved an astounding success with the sports drink Gatorade. However, in terms of brand identity the two drinks couldn’t have been further

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-33694309762768922022006-11-19T23:03:00.000+02:002006-11-20T23:42:51.510+02:00

A tale of two cultures For guitar fans, the Fender brand is an icon. Fender guitars, such as the Stratocaster and the Telecaster, were associated with the rock and roll scene of the 1950s and were later played by many of the most famous rock musicians. John Lennon and George Harrison both owned Stratocasters, and Jimi Hendrix also helped to turn that particular model of electric guitar into a

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-24327828236109997602006-11-18T22:44:00.000+02:002006-11-21T17:13:16.438+02:00

Schweppes Tonic Water in Italy In Italy, a promotional campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water failed when the product name was translated as ‘Schweppes Toilet Water’. Subsequent campaigns have had better results. Electrolux in the United States Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux raised a few eyebrows in the United States when it came up with the slogan ‘Nothing sucks like an

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-43377300294852431752006-11-17T11:41:00.000+02:002006-11-17T11:46:31.452+02:00

Stereotyping the market A computer aimed specifically at children may seem like a good idea. Patriot Computers certainly thought so, which is why they came up with the Hot Wheels PC in 1999. These computers, which came with Intel chips and Windows 98 software, were targeted primarily at the boys’ market and the hardware was decorated with racing car imagery including the Hot Wheels flame logo.

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-58257844305737676652006-11-16T11:47:00.000+02:002006-11-17T11:51:55.881+02:00

Failing to be heard Technology company Altec Lansing learned the importance of marketing with its failed VoicePod digital recorder. As the leading maker of computer speakers, Altec was sure it had a hit on its hands with its innovative recorder that attached audio messages to e-mail. PC World magazine said the VoicePod looked like ‘a mouse on steroids – a lot of steroids – and promised to

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-78989967093612851102006-11-15T12:00:00.000+02:002006-11-15T12:23:01.492+02:00

Kellogg’s is, of course, a mighty brand. Its cereals have been consumed around the globe more than any of its rivals. Sub-brands such as Corn Flakes, Frosties and Rice Krispies are the breakfast favourites of millions. In the late 1980s, the company had reached an all-time peak, commanding a staggering 40 per cent of the US ready-to-eat market from its cereal products alone. By that time,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-80682550794613596712006-11-15T11:24:00.000+02:002006-11-15T11:29:38.329+02:00

When Barbie’s boyfriend came out of the closet Among toys, Mattel’s Barbie is something of a legend. Since her arrival on the scene at the annual Toy Fair in New York in 1959, Barbie has appealed to several different generations of girls. One of the keys to her longevity has been her ability to move with the times. In the 1980s, for instance, Barbie wore shoulder pads and became an aerobics

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-202741666324670102006-11-14T10:39:00.000+02:002006-11-14T10:43:16.513+02:00

Pets.com In the mid-1990s, when the commercial potential for the Internet was beginning to be realized, people started to register Internet addresses with no intention of using them. This so-called land-grab was fuelled by a desire to sell these addresses at a later date. Indeed, names such as business.com and sex.com proved to be so attractive to certain companies that millions were paid

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-91149351604386658612006-11-13T21:59:00.000+02:002006-11-13T22:00:56.124+02:00

A monster flop If one word saturates the brand consultant’s vocabulary more than any other, it is ‘synergy’. When big companies formulate a brand strategy they increasingly try to synergize their marketing efforts. In other words, the aim is to extend the brand into other relevant product categories. In recent times, cross-promotional tie-ins have become all the rage and have proven, if

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-13202595649476792802006-11-12T21:46:00.000+02:002006-11-13T22:21:39.377+02:00

Warm milk, frosty reception Kellogg’s may have had problems when marketing in certain foreign territories such as India, but the company has also come unstuck on its home turf, most notably with its Cereal Mates product. The idea was simple. Cereal Mates were small boxes of Kellogg’s cereal packed with a container of milk and a plastic spoon. The advantage of the product was equally

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-66935684356762373002006-11-10T22:28:00.000+02:002006-11-13T22:30:28.054+02:00

One stubborn stain on Unilever’s reputation In the mid-1990s, the total UK market for soaps and detergents was worth £1.42 billion (US $2.6 billion), and the largest sector was fabric washing, worth £960 million and 67.5 per cent of the total sector. The competition between the two leading companies within the sector, Unilever and Procter & Gamble, was intense and led to a quest for more and more

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-72223624397332443602006-11-09T13:00:00.000+02:002006-11-17T13:04:49.280+02:00

Bad branding @ work There was a time when Excite@Home was considered to be one of the ‘safe bets’ of the Internet revolution. Based around one simple service offering – the delivery of high-speed net access – investors were quick to see its potential. Then, bolstered by investment dollars, Excite@Home decided it wanted to be something bigger, and purchased a variety of online media properties

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-5615989937133772982006-11-08T11:40:00.000+02:002006-11-21T17:18:47.368+02:00

Of all products, cars have had the most translation problems. When people chuckled at General Motors’ Chevy Nova in Latin America, the automotive giant was perplexed. Until, that is, someone pointed out that ‘Nova’ means ‘It doesn’t go’ in Spanish.Then there was the Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility that caused embarrassment in Spain, where ‘pajero’ is slang for ‘masturbator’.Toyota’s Fiera car

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-91934993017585499982006-11-08T10:57:00.000+02:002006-11-14T10:59:55.887+02:00

How the ‘King of Chrome’ ended up on the scrap heap Oldsmobile is among the brand legends in US car history. Conceived in 1897, it was one of the five core brands manufactured by General Motors (GM) – the other four being Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac – and helped lead the company to a 57 per cent share of the US car market by the middle of the last century. For decades, Oldsmobile

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-90059646158215733922006-11-07T11:36:00.000+02:002006-11-14T11:37:42.178+02:00

In pursuit of purity Coca-Cola may have one of the most famous brand failures of all time, but its long-standing rival has also had its fair share of marketing mishaps. For instance, in 1992 Pepsi spotted what it considered to be a gap in the market. What the world was waiting for, the company decided, was a clear cola. After all, there had already been a variety of diet colas, cherry colas,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-81700560937555890512006-11-05T12:26:00.000+02:002006-11-14T12:30:32.451+02:00

The sweet smell of failure In various magazines, at various conferences, and in his online newsletter, Saatchi and Saatchi’s worldwide chief executive officer, Kevin Roberts, has talked of the ‘mythology of the brand’. The most powerful brands, according to Roberts, are those that have built their own mythology, or rather, that have helped their loyal customers to build this mythology. The

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-80930460045271457672006-11-02T18:39:00.000+02:002006-11-02T21:26:44.779+02:00

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, products were responsible for the fate of a company. When a company noticed that its sales were flagging, it would come to one conclusion: its product was starting to fail. Now things have changed. Companies don’t blame the product, they blame the brand. It isn’t the physical item sitting on the shop shelf at fault, but rather what that item represents,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-3161008723876591852006-11-01T17:34:00.000+02:002006-11-02T21:26:11.049+02:00

The aim of this blog is to provide ‘how not to’ advice by drawing on some of the largest branding blunders of all time. Brands which set sail with the help of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns shortly before sinking without trace are clear contenders. However, the blog will also look at acknowledged brand mistakes made by usually successful companies such as Virgin, McDonald’s, IBM,

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29070478576685144392006-10-31T20:35:00.000+02:002006-11-02T21:25:02.458+02:00

When their brands fail companies are always taken by surprise. This is because they have had faith in their brand from the start, otherwise it would never have been launched in the first place. However, this brand faith often stems from an obscured attitude towards branding, based around one or a combination of the following brand myths: If a product is good, it will succeed. This is blatantly

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-22369403448532232992006-10-30T20:49:00.000+02:002006-11-02T21:08:48.148+02:00

Among many US marketing professors, the story of the Edsel car is considered the classic brand failure of all time. Dubbed ‘the Titanic of automobiles’, the Edsel is certainly one of the biggest branding disasters to afflict the Ford Motor Company. As with other, more recent brand failures featured in the book (see New Coke, WAP and boo.com for three examples), the Edsel car was launched amid

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-68980559276813250652006-10-25T21:02:00.000+03:002006-11-02T23:01:36.715+02:00

According to received branding wisdom, the best way to become a strong brand is to be first in a new category. This theory has been repeatedly emphasized by the world-renowned brand guru Al Ries. ‘Customers don’t really care about new brands, they care about new categories,’ he writes in The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. ‘By first preempting the category and then aggressively promoting the

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-79128957442156899772006-10-23T22:47:00.000+03:002006-11-02T22:51:46.187+02:00

As well as the McLibel Trial , McDonald’s has also experienced a number of more conventional marketing problems in recent years. Most of these problems have been new products that have failed to inspire consumers. McLean Deluxe (an attempt to cater for the healthconscious customer) and McSoup are two obvious examples, but it was with the Arch Deluxe burger that McDonald’s experienced its most

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-59534620386841561022006-10-11T00:33:00.000+03:002006-11-02T21:09:14.802+02:00

Think of a brand success story, and you may well think of Coca-Cola. Indeed, with nearly 1 billion Coca-Cola drinks sold every single day, it is the world’s most recognized brand.Yet in 1985 the Coca-Cola Company decided to terminate its most popular soft drink and replace it with a formula it would market as New Coke. To understand why this potentially disastrous decision was made, it is

Cashberrynoreply@blogger.com3