tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946593154466917122024-03-27T09:37:30.033+03:00Brand Failures - and lessons learned!You learn more from failure than you can from success. But this lessons are deadly serious. Read them, enjoy them and learn from them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-18497719796209056642007-05-08T19:22:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:27:49.087+03:00Tired Brands: The Cream nightclubLast 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 VirginUnknownnoreply@blogger.com60tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-83047436251929974652007-05-07T18:07:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:11:43.324+03:00Tired brands: OvaltineWhen 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-53151633511135911502007-05-06T14:08:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:10:51.187+03:00Brand Extension Failure: LifeSavers SodaInvented 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 producedUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-55600226991148688772007-05-06T01:25:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:30:44.738+03:00Brand People Failures: Guiltless GourmetHelping 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-27334391319761943002007-05-05T01:33:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:34:49.912+03:00Rebranding failures: BT Cellnet to O2Undoing 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-45759067339493662112007-05-04T01:47:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:48:27.717+03:00People Brand Failures: Hear’SayFrom 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-3885459483558042042007-05-04T01:34:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:41:03.396+03:00Brand PR Failures: Farley’s infant milkThe 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-75201896563605603952007-05-03T18:25:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:28:11.663+03:00Tired brands: MoulinexGoing 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-61864623202769469322007-05-02T01:43:00.000+03:002007-05-04T01:44:50.510+03:00People Brand Failures: Fashion CaféFrom 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-5512448960373580072007-05-01T18:17:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:17:58.556+03:00Tired brands: RoverA 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-27198161781759230612007-04-30T19:18:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:19:16.815+03:00Tired Brands: Levi’sBelow 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-49963823622736289782007-04-29T18:40:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:44:31.766+03:00Tired brands: Nova magazineLet 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-26742902534125538652007-04-28T14:37:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:45:59.852+03:00Internet and new technology failures: boo.comThe 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-24776424445815347882007-04-28T01:44:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:46:02.526+03:00Rebranding failures: Payless Drug Store to Rite AidIn 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 ownUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-43994777238576069862007-04-27T18:14:00.000+03:002007-05-07T18:15:41.107+03:00Tired brands: Pear’s SoapFailing 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-38191008933705418372007-04-24T14:33:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:37:11.454+03:00Internet and new technology failures: IBM’s Linux graffitiOne 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, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29602118104682199522007-04-23T19:20:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:22:22.587+03:00Tired Brands: KmartA 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-69004523127832117902007-04-22T14:30:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:33:16.222+03:00Internet and new technology failures: Intel’s Pentium chipProblem? 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-44054693754903764522007-04-21T01:41:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:44:30.072+03:00Rebranding failures: Windscale to SellafieldSame 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29451792557170397182007-04-20T14:29:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:30:10.445+03:00Internet and new technology failures: Dell’s Web PCNot 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,’ Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-47989300368173412012007-04-19T01:46:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:47:37.479+03:00Rebranding failures: British AirwaysWhen 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-31552141580319569962007-04-18T19:29:00.000+03:002007-05-07T19:30:18.983+03:00Tired Brands: Yardley cosmeticsFrom 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-23195755526043492892007-04-14T14:16:00.000+03:002007-05-06T14:16:55.268+03:00Brand Extension: Colgate Kitchen EntreesIn 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-50822215553945179502007-04-11T01:48:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:49:03.516+03:00Rebranding failures: MicroProRemember 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1294659315446691712.post-29221748596126918012007-04-06T01:35:00.000+03:002007-05-06T01:41:08.701+03:00Rebranding failures: ONdigital to ITV DigitalHow 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0