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

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

Consistency
of message at
all touch points

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