Why Famous Brands Fail – They came, they sold, they failed!

I remember one great thing that I studied in Brand Management…“If you can Brand water, you can pretty much brand anything.” Although the concept of branding and logo design has evolved to great proportions, people still misconstrue the actual idea of a brand. What many businesses don’t understand is that nowadays you enter the market with two things…your product and your brand. A product only helps in telling your customers WHAT you offer. But a brand is something that enlightens HOW you are different from the rest and WHY should they opt you instead of other similar products or services. Successful brands can help a failed product, but a successful product cannot help a failed brand.

Why Brands Fail – The Neglected Facts: We hear a lot about how famous brands are made and what aspects propel them to great heights. But we often neglect the raison d’être that lead to failure of good brands. Following are the major reasons why good brands falter:

· “Brand is a Product” Fixation:

When brands are treated merely as products, this means you are stuck in the “Brand is a Product” Fixation. Imagine if McDonalds’ only offered burgers and no entertainment, what would be the difference between them and a local burger stand? Under the shadow of its famousMcDonald’s logo, it has created food as a product. They deliver convenience, entertainment and reliable taste to their customers.

· The “Myopia Syndrome”

Yes, I know every firm’s core purpose is to earn maximum profits, but you can’t sell what you can’t tell. When brands goals are short-term, they are under the influence of what I call the TheMyopia syndrome. As the term suggests, Myopia syndrome is when a brand’s vision turns shortsighted, i.e. they are focused more on earning dollars than earning respect of their customers. Without building a long-term sustainable relationship, your brand is liable to fall.

· Product breaks “Brand promise”:

Some brands fail because they don’t live up to their customers expectations anymore. Case in point is the all-famous Coke, which tried to introduce the “New Coke”, in a different flavor. What happened? It badly FAILED! Although they made no drastic changes to the packaging or the Coke logo, their product taste was disliked by customers. Coke’s product failed to deliver what its brand promised…Great Taste. Good of them to revert back to the old Coke.

· “You Snooze you Lose”:

One should never forget that Change is constant. Human desires change every now and then. Brands that don’t cope with the changing desires of their customers lose the race. Technology is rapidly changing, so much that every 6-months we see a new Apple ifone with added features and promises. Commodore used to be one of the leading brands in the computer market till it became stagnated and went bankrupt.

· The “Reactive Syndrome”:

The business environment has become so unstable that you have to be on your toes for any uncalled changes. Precaution measures are necessary whenit comes to sustaining good brands. In short, brands must be proactive instead of experiencing The Reactive Syndrome. Those brands that wait for the changes to arrive and then react, often fail. Remember the BP logo parody? BP failed badly as it was not proactive to the hazards of oil spill and their reactive stance was too late to make amends.

· “Hocus Pocus, You Lose Focus”:

Can you imagine Harley Davidson making perfumes? Well, for those who are unaware, they actually tried it. Just because you are using the Harley Davidson logo on a perfume, doesn’t mean it will sell. In this case, it really didn’t sell. The Harley Davidson brand badly failed because it lost focus of its core business…making motorcycles.

Check your brand health before it dies: Old adages are not only meant to be learnt at school. They hold a significant meaning and a lesson for future. “Prevention is better than cure” is the adage that needs to be considered in its true spirit when dealing with brands. This is because it is easy to resurrect a failed product, but difficult to resurrect a failed brand.

Do you recall any famous brand that failed? And why?