DREAMING OF BRAND FAILURE

BUTTERFLY IS A LONDON BASED BRAND & INNOVATION SPECIALIST WITH A SPECIFIC EXPERTISE IN EMERGING MARKETS

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WERE EXCITED ABOUT BRAND FAILURES... ...THEY TEACH US SO MUCH

If your young brand manager makes an expensive mistake, do you want him to resign when you spent so much training him? Or keep him, to never have the mistake made again?

SOME BRANDS JUST LOST THEIR WAY A BIT...

BEER SHOULD STAY AS... BEER

Coors tried to extend into water, but this made no sense to its own or water brand consumers. Its expertise was beer.

Although Pepsi consumers were drinking it at breakfast time, it made no sense to an audience when the brand specified when it was to be drunk.

Keep it classic; Keep it American; Keep it Coke...

Changing the original Coke formula was as un-American as changing the constitution. Classic Coke rescued the brand.

Pears soap loyalists were shocked when new brand owners changed the original recipe, and they were forced to change it back.

Missing the moment... of the digital age.

Kodak had had its moment when it failed to answer the call of the digital age.

Polaroid was about instant gratification for reliving a memory. The brand offer was true but the business was too product focused and died with the digital cameras arrival.

Its all in a name...

For a baby food to be named after something less-than-reputable was a cultural oversight this French brand much regretted.

Danone wanting to lose the identity of this much-loved Hungarian biscuit proved misguided: locals wanted to access, not become, western.

Using white carnations in Hong Kong to celebrate a new route showed little thought for the local convention of this colour being for funerals.

Home made soup is so much better in Russia...

WE DREAM OF BRAND FAILURE, OF MAKING MISTAKES...

Very smart people make mistakes. The trick is not to repeat them.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new Albert Einstein

If youre not failing every now and again, its a sign youre not doing anything very innovative
Woody Allen

3 GREAT FAILURE CASE STUDIES...

Your biggest competitor is stealing your share

Coca Cola seemed to listen to what Pepsi told them about their own brand was there really something wrong with the flavour?

What Coke hadnt realised was how deeply rooted the relationship with the total brand (not just a product) was.

Coca Cola is the sublimated essence of all that America stands for. William Allen White

We heard you

Chair of Coca Cola, Goizueta

Listening paid off: the consumer returned because of love of the brand and knowing they had been listened to.

Even with only 2% share, Kelloggs in India had the promise of 18 million consumers. How could you go wrong?

But Kelloggs failed to recognise that breakfast, like all foods, is very cultural: what people traditionally eat in India for breakfast is different to the UK and US.

Not recognising cultural preferences, including storing fresh milk and cost per unit in a low per capita income country, all cost Kelloggs dearly, and gave them a beleaguered launch.

In its portfolio Kelloggs now has porridge. This hot cereal, a hangover from the Raj and the Scotts Guards, is actually already culturally imbedded in Indian culture

Nokia had been synonymous with all that was great in the early world of mobile phone technology.

But they didnt keep up with technology and how phones now bring you email, cameras, music and the internet.

And they failed to understand the relationship people now have with their phones as a communication partner, not just a phone.

Nokia had certainly understood they were about Connecting People. However, had their brand promise just been Connecting, they would have continued to live a more relevant brand vision.

With a much lowered market share the once dominant brand will now be playing catch up.

2009

2011

48% 29%

GOLDEN RULES TO BRAND FAILURE

So if you want your brand to fail, here are our top 10 tips...

Look at the product not the brand...

Never be emotional...

Over extend...

Give it a terrible name...

Pay no attention to cultural nuances

Focus too much on your competition...

Abuse transparency of social media...

Listen to what your consumers say...

Think the PR campaign will save you later. rather than doing the right thing immediately after the crisis.

Brand Arrogance

HOW CAN WE FULFIL A BRAND DREAM?

Wonderful handbags, clothes and shoes well made products in stunning designs. But their chair, Robert Polet, knows he doesnt sell handbags, but a dream... He has understood the essence of his brand.
People buy our brands because they want to be a part of a particular dream... so people before going into the store, they decide I would like to be a part of that dream. And that is an emotional decision
Robert Polet

to create an emotional connection...

Reason is not as pure as most of us think it is or

wish it to be; emotion and feelings arent intruders into the bastion of reason. we feel before we think. In fact we feel in order to think. Descartes Error, Antonio Damasi

SO WE GIVE YOU THE SIMPLE

BUTTERFLY RULES FOR SUCCESS...

g n i d n a t s r e d n U m a e r the d

Consistency of message at all touch points

g n i t a r b e l e C s e c n a u n l a r u t l u

Listen, listen, listen... But ask me the right questions

Simply 4 rules; just not always simple to realise effectively. Learning from the rest can help you do a great job...

g n i d n a t s r U n de t h e d rea m

Consistency of message at all touch points

g Celebratin s e c n a u n l a cultur

Listen, listen, listen... But ask me the right questions

Understanding the dream

If you dont understand your own brands DNA, & how the consumer perceives it, then you simply cannot help it perform in the long term. Whether you are creating a new concept or managing an existing brand, it is the consumer, not you, who truly owns the brand. So dont forget to listen, listen well and listen often to what they tell you they want and need from you.

THANK YOU
Find us on
Bianca Cawthorne
bianca@butterflylondon.com

Deirdre Findlay
deirdre@butterflylondon.com www.butterflylondon.com