by Urooj Husain, Client Services Manager
There are lots of cardinal mistakes a brand can make and shoot itself in the foot. Below are some oft-repeated ones which marketers need to be wary of.
1. When a brand fails to recognize cultural-sensitivities
When Pepsi entered China, it launched with the slogan, “Pepsi brings you back to life”. What they didn’t realise is that the phrase translated to “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” Or when Electrolux used the slogan “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” in an American campaign. What’s more, Nike had to recall thousands of products when a decoration intended to resemble fire on the back of the shoes resembled the Arabic word for Allah. But this issue is an extremely relevant one for us in this region as many global brands try to copy-paste their international marketing campaigns only to realize that MENA is a very different market from the rest of the world.
2. Brand re-vamp is great. Unless you didn’t think it through
Brands need to evolve from time to time to ensure they keep up with the times. However, it’s vital that you don’t throw away your brand’s history and heritage in pursuit of future profits.
Take for example Gap, during the busy Christmas period of 2010, launching a new logo. The original Gap logo loved for more than 20 years, disappeared without warning! The internet went abuzz with brand loyalists sneering at the new logo. Gap responded positively, revealing that their new logo design was in fact the first stage of a crowd sourcing process. To cut a long story short, Gap performed possibly one of the fastest branding turnarounds of all time when they reverted to their original design, just six days after putting their new logo out into the public. The Gap re-brand was estimated to have cost them $100 million, not the price tag you’d expect for something that could’ve been put together using MS PowerPoint.
3. When a brand ignores the power of PR
United Airlines became 2017’s biggest PR disaster after a video went viral with a passenger being violently dragged off one of its planes. Apparently, they had tried to “re-accommodate” the passenger so that a staff member who was needed in another location could board. Unfortunately, the re-accommodation involved hauling the passenger down the aisle. The passenger lost a couple of front teeth in the incident but UA lost a lot more as millions in brand building exercises went up in smoke.
4. When a brand fails to spot a threat or an opportunity
Yahoo, Nokia, Blackberry, Compaq the list goes on of brands which failed to recognize a possible threat or failed to leverage a potential opportunity. For threat, think Motorola in mobile phone handsets. It managed to misread how the US market was moving and failed to respond to new rivals coming to eat its lunch. For opportunity, think Kodak in photography. It designed the first digital camera way back in 1975 but put its money on physical photo printing rather than digital photo sharing.
5. When a brand tries to bite more than it can chew
Ever heard of Cosmopolitan Yogurt or Harley Davidson cake decorating kit? Do you fancy Colgate ready meals, or Zippo feminine perfume? Trust you me, these are actual epic brand extension failures. There is a science behind brand extension and if every brand could become anything then brands will start selling like commodities in the market. While a well thought of brand extension like Samsung phones can take the brand to another level, a shoddy idea could very well make you lose millions.
6. A brand can starve itself of advertising support
There is a reason big brands like Coca-Cola, Apple and Samsung continue to spend millions year upon year in advertising despite a well established brand equity. Lots of examples of failures are available in the marketing history of great products like Tango, which was a market leader in UK at one point, that lost to Fanta in just under a decade resulting in the brand’s early death or think VW Beetle which had to struggle so hard to come back after it went quiet for decades. Brand salience goes a long way to establish a continued brand equity and advertising goes a long way in accomplishing good brand salience.
So the next time you plan to cut your marketing spend further, remember, “something is always better than nothing” in the world of brands.
