Brand Failures
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Brand Failures Matt Haig Kogan Page Brand Failures Praise for Brand Failures... “You learn more from failure than you can from success. Matt Haig’s new book is a goldmine of helpful how-not-to advice, which you ignore at your own peril.” Laura Ries, President, Ries & Ries, marketing strategists, and bestselling co-author of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding “Every marketer will read this with both pleasure and profit. But the lessons are deadly serious, back to basics: real consumer benefits, value, execution. Read it, enjoy it, learn from it.” Patrick Barwise, Professor of Management and Marketing, London Business School “Business books that manage to grab your attention, entertain you, and provide you with great advice, all at the same time, should be read immediately. This is one of those books. If you want to avoid being in the next edition of this book, you had better read it.” Peter Cheverton, CEO, Insight Marketing & People, and author of Key Marketing Skills “I thought the book was terrific. Brings together the business lessons from all the infamous brand disasters from the Ford Edsel and New Coke to today’s Andersen and Enron. A must-buy for marketers.” Peter Doyle, Professor of Marketing & Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick “Brand Failures is a treasure trove of information and insights. I’ll be consulting it regularly! ” Sicco van Gelder, CEO, Brand-Meta consultancy, and author of Global Brand Strategy “Matt Haig is to be congratulated on compiling a comprehensive and compelling collection of 100 cases of failures attributable to misunderstanding or misapplication of brand strategy. Mark and learn.” Michael J Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Marketing, University of Strathclyde, President, Academy of Marketing “The history of consumer marketing is littered with failed brands and we can learn from them. If you are responsible for your brand read this book. It might just be the best investment that you will ever make! ” Shaun Smith, Senior Vice President of Forum, a division of FT Knowledge, and author of Uncommon Practice “Books that describe best branding practice abound and yet the real learning lies in studying why brands have failed. Matt Haig has done a terrific job in analysing this topic, and I highly recommend his book to everyone responsible for brand creation, development and management.” Dr Paul Temporal, Brand Strategy Consultant, Singapore (www.brandingasia.com) and author of Advanced Brand Management Brand Failures Matt Haig First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2003 by Kogan Page Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses: 120 Pentonville Road 22883 Quicksilver Drive London N1 9JN Sterling VA 20166-2012 UK USA www.kogan-page.co.uk © Matt Haig, 2003 The right of Matt Haig to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN 0 7494 3927 0 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Haig, Matt. Brand failures / Matt Haig. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7494-3927-0 1. Brand name products--Marketing. 2. Brand loyalty. 3. Brand choice. I. Title HD69.B7H345 2003 658.8’27--dc21 2003000966 Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Wellingborough, Northants Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn www.biddles.co.uk Contents 1. Introduction 1 Why brands fail 4 Brand myths 6 Why focus on failure? 7 2. Classic failures 9 1 New Coke 13 2 The Ford Edsel 19 3 Sony Betamax 26 4 McDonald’s Arch Deluxe 30 3. Idea failures 33 5 Kellogg’s Cereal Mates: warm milk, frosty reception 37 6 Sony’s Godzilla: a monster flop 40 7 Persil Power: one stubborn stain on Unilever’s reputation 44 8 Pepsi: in pursuit of purity 47 9 Earring Magic Ken: when Barbie’s boyfriend came out of 50 the closet 10 The Hot Wheels computer: stereotyping the market 53 11 Corfam: the leather substitute 55 12 RJ Reynolds’ Smokeless Cigarettes: the ultimate bad idea 57 13 Oranjolt: the drink that lost its cool 62 14 La Femme: where are the pink ladies? 64 15 Radion: bright orange boxes aren’t enough 67 vi Contents 16 Clairol’s ‘Touch of Yoghurt’ shampoo 68 17 Pepsi AM 69 18 Maxwell House ready-to-drink coffee 70 19 Campbell’s Souper Combo 71 20 Thirsty Cat! and Thirsty Dog!: bottled water for pets 72 4. Extension failures 73 21 Harley Davidson perfume: the sweet smell of failure 77 22 Gerber Singles: when branding goes ga ga 82 23 Crest: stretching a brand to its limit 83 24 Heinz All Natural Cleaning Vinegar: confusing the customer 87 25 Miller: the ever-expanding brand 90 26 Virgin Cola: a brand too far 94 27 Bic underwear: strange but true 96 28 Xerox Data Systems: more than copiers? 98 29 Chiquita: is there life beyond bananas? 103 30 Country Time Cider 106 31 Ben-Gay Aspirin 107 32 Capital Radio restaurants 108 33 Smith and Wesson mountain bikes 109 34 Cosmopolitan yoghurt 110 35 Lynx barbershop 111 36 Colgate Kitchen Entrees 112 37 LifeSavers Soda 113 38 Pond’s toothpaste 114 39 Frito-Lay Lemonade 115 5. PR failures 117 40 Exxon 121 41 McDonald’s: the McLibel trial 124 42 Perrier’s benzene contamination 129 43 Pan Am: ending in tragedy 132 44 Snow Brand milk products: poisoning a brand 134 45 Rely tampons: Procter & Gamble’s toxic shock 137 46 Gerber’s PR blunder 140 47 RJ Reynold’s Joe Camel campaign 142 48 Firestone tyres 144 49 Farley’s infant milk and the salmonella incident 148 Contents vii 6. Culture failures 151 50 Kellogg’s in India 155 51 Hallmark in France 161 52 Pepsi in Taiwan 163 53 Schweppes Tonic Water in Italy 164 54 Chevy Nova and others 165 55 Electrolux in the United States 166 56 Gerber in Africa 167 57 Coors in Spain 168 58 Frank Perdue’s chicken in Spain 169 59 Clairol’s Mist Stick in Germany 170 60 Parker Pens in Mexico 171 61 American Airlines in Mexico 172 62 Vicks in Germany 173 63 Kentucky Fried Chicken in Hong Kong 174 64 CBS Fender: a tale of two cultures 175 65 Quaker Oats’ Snapple: failing to understand the essence of 178 the brand 7. People failures 181 66 Enron: failing the truth 185 67 Arthur Andersen: shredding a reputation 187 68 Ratner’s: when honesty is not the best policy 189 69 Planet Hollywood: big egos, weak brand 192 70 Fashion Café: from catwalk to catfights 194 71 Hear’Say: from pop to flop 196 72 Guiltless Gourmet: helping the competition 198 8. Rebranding failures 201 73 Consignia: a post office by any other name 205 74 Tommy Hilfiger: the power of the logo 209 75 BT Cellnet to O2: undoing the brand 212 76 ONdigital to ITV Digital: how the ‘beautiful dream’ went 214 sour 77 Windscale to Sellafield: same identity, different name 218 78 Payless Drug Store to Rite Aid Corporation 220 79 British Airways 221 80 MicroPro 222 viii Contents 9. Internet and new technology failures 223 81 Pets.com 229 82 VoicePod: failing to be heard 234 83 Excite@Home: bad branding @ work 236 84 WAP: why another protocol? 239 85 Dell’s Web PC: not quite a net gain 242 86 Intel’s Pentium chip: problem? What problem? 245 87 IBM’s Linux software and the graffiti guerrillas 247 88 boo.com: the party’s over 249 10. Tired brands 257 89 Oldsmobile: how the King of Chrome ended up on the 261 scrap heap 90 Pear’s soap: failing to hit the present taste 265 91 Ovaltine: when a brand falls asleep 268 92 Kodak: failing to stay ahead 270 93 Polaroid: live by the category, die by the category 274 94 Rover: a dog of brand 280 95 Moulinex: going up in smoke 282 96 Nova magazine: let sleeping brands lie 284 97 Levi’s: below the comfort zone 287 98 Kmart: a brand on the brink 291 99 The Cream nightclub: last dance saloon? 293 100 Yardley cosmetics: from grannies to handcuffs 298 References 301 Index 303 CHAPTER 1 Introduction The process of branding was developed to protect products from failure. This is easy to see if we trace this process back to its 19th-century origins. In the 1880s, companies such as Campbell’s, Heinz and Quaker Oats were growing ever more concerned about the consumer’s reaction to mass-produced products. Brand identities were designed not only to help these products stand out, but also to reassure a public anxious about the whole concept of factory-produced goods. By adding a ‘human’ element to the product, branding put the 19th- century shoppers’ minds at rest. They may have once placed their trust in their friendly shopkeeper, but now they could place it in the brands them- selves, and the smiling faces of Uncle Ben or Aunt Jemima which beamed down from the shop shelves.