Why do brand fail?

Why do brand fail?

Proper branding can result in higher sales of not only one product, but on other products associated with that brand. For example, if a customer loves Pillsbury biscuits and trusts the brand, he or she is more likely to try other products offered by the company such as chocolate chip cookies. Brand is the personality that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc.

Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The brand experience is a brand's action perceived by a person. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people, consisting of all the information and expectations associated with a product, service or the company(ies) providing them.

Careful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the target audience. Brands should be seen as more than the difference between the actual cost of a product and its selling price - they represent the sum of all valuable qualities of a product to the consumer.

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy, too.

We are living in a world where water is sold with a name, clothes are being marketed with signature signs and food items are being promoted with trademarks. The concept of branding has completely shaped the way people consume commodities. Customers in this day and age prefer status symbols over necessity. This shows the importance of branding and its influence on businesses.

Scott Bedbury, Starbucks’ former vice-president of marketing, controversially admitted that ‘consumers don’t truly believe there’s a huge difference between products,’ which means brands have to establish ‘emotional ties’ with their customers.

However, emotions aren’t to be messed with. Once a brand has created that necessary bond, it has to handle it with care. One step out of line and the customer may not be willing to forgive.

This is ultimately why all brands fail. Something happens to break the bond between the customer and the brand. This is not always the fault of the company, as some things really are beyond their immediate control (global recession, technological advances, international disasters etc). However, more often than not, when brands struggle or fail it is usually down to a distorted perception of the brand, the competition or the market.

 It takes years to erect a successful brand identity, but only an instant to destroy it. All the famous brands and corporations have risen to their current status after a lot of painstaking effort. Failure is common for small businesses and start-ups, but have we ever wondered how famous brands falter? Today, I seek to uncover some of the most common reasons why renowned brands fall by illustrating the cases of some famous brands.

Brand amnesia– For old brands, as for old people, memory becomes an increasing issue. When a brand forgets what it is supposed to stand for, it runs into trouble. The most obvious case of brand amnesia occurs when a venerable, long-standing brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when Coca-Cola tried to replace its original formula with New Coke. The results were disastrous.

Brand ego– Brands sometimes develop a tendency for over-estimating their own importance, and their own capability. This is evident when a brand believes it can support a market single-handedly, as Polaroid did with the instant photography market. It is also apparent when a brand enters a new market for which it is clearly ill-suited, such as Harley Davidson trying to sell perfume.

Short-Term Approach: For a successful brand, the short-term approach is always hazardous as it restricts the domain and vision of the company. While it is an inherent truth that all companies are there in the market to make money, one cannot keep such a short-term and narrow-minded mindset if it wants to win customers for a longer period of time. A recent case in point was British Petroleum that didn’t accurately forecast the repercussions of its business on the environment and ended up becoming the bad company in the eyes of the general public.

Brand megalomania– Egotism can lead to megalomania. When this happens, brands want to take over the world by expanding into every product category imaginable. Some, such as Virgin, get away with it. Lesser brands, however, do not.

Brand deception– ‘Human kind cannot bear very much reality,’ wrote T S Eliot. Neither can brands. Indeed, some brands see the whole marketing process as an act of covering up the reality of their product. In extreme cases, the trend towards brand fiction can lead to downright lies. For example, in an attempt to promote the film A Knight’s Tale one Sony marketing executive invented a critic, and a suitable quote, to put onto the promotional poster. In an age where markets are increasingly connected, via the Internet and other technologies, consumers can no longer be deceived.

Too Slow to Change: In this day and age, companies cannot afford to lag behind in technology and advancement. Those who were too slow to adapt to the changing environment lost the race in the long run. I remember a 64-Bit Commodore system lying in my attic that was once used by our grandparents for computing and entertainment purposes. The company was too slow to update their systems and lost the race to giants like IBM, Compaq and Apple.

Going Against the Image:Honda, Toyota, Ford and Ferrari – all of these brands have built an image of being reputable car manufacturers. This brand image is attached to the company and affects their future operations as well. If one of these car manufacturers decide to enter a totally diverse field, let’s say, perfumes, would it be appropriate? Most certainly not! A similar case happened in 1999, when the famous women’s magazine, Cosmopolitan, introduced its own line of low-fat yogurt. The brand failed badly since the customers were reluctant to accept a yogurt linked to a female magazine.

Brand paranoia– This is the opposite of brand ego and is most likely to occur when a brand faces increased competition. Typical symptoms include: a tendency to file lawsuits against rival companies, a willingness to reinvent the brand every six months, and a longing to imitate competitors.

Some Examples:

Outkast clothing                                Created By:Outkast                                       Founded:2002

When Outkast announced that they were going to launch their own clothing line, Andre said that fans would be able to get "everything...the furs, the leathers...hats...everything." But when it hit stores it looked like a rehashed Enyce. It didn't represent 3 Stacks, the George Clinton of hip hop style or Big Boy’s fly pimp styling’s. It was just kind of boring. And they never wore it. Rule #1 of the celebrity clothing game: If you don't wear your clothes, no one else will.

Levi’s - Type 1 Jeans

Apparently jeans that are perfect for those situations when you're being dragged through the dirt while hanging on to a rope wrapped around a possessed car don’t resonate with the masses. This confusing Super Bowl commercial was simultaneously the debut and the death knell for Levi's Type 1 Jeans.

Why it failed:Fashion is a capricious field. The designers at Levi’s made Fashion Fumble #41b: Celebrating the launch of a product before checking to see if anyone RSVP’d to the Evite.