European biggest brands failures

We are all do mistakes - we are just human beings, aren't we? We are not perfect and even very experienced people can make wrong decisions. The most important is what we do afterwards - do we leave it behind, with no excuse, or we try make it up, by making a statement " we were wrong, we apologize to all our customers" - anything of that kind would be fine. No business in this world (especially in these turbulent times) can go on without taking a risk and any decision we make, takes risk with it. What I tried to say in other words is - no risk  no fun :) No, I'm joking - But let's have a lesson from the "biggest" players in the market - the more influensive and powerful you are - the more you suffer unfortunately...

But before I start talking about European brands, I would like to bring on one American company's blunders. One I came across was about Harley Davidson trying to launch perfumes.

 Yes perfumes. Legendary Harley Davidson. How come you may ask? Harley, motorcycles and perfumes? Can you imagine the Harley's customers? They just LOVE their motorcycles no matter how they lack technology or if they sometimes leak. What I see when I think of Harley Davidson is the freedom of the open road, the men with no limits and the rumble... So I was pretty amazed, probably like you are right now. I can understand T-shirts, gadgets, kids wear, even socks but not aftershave or perfume and I guess for Harley owner this extensions was far too much as well. The story goes even funnier - the HD launched wine coolers - not impressive at all. This brand is associated with  certain image s like masculinity, rugged values, strength  the smell of oil, freedom. The company went to far with its extensions, too far form its core competency which is motorcycles. Fortunately, they understood they mistake early and withdrew the unfortunate products. My point is - why go further than you actually are able to? Why companies forget about their loyal profitable customers and go for inexplicable extensions? Why do you go for a sector that is not even remotely close to what you represent?

Anyway, let's come back to the European brands - they are not much wiser, however they do mistakes at different levels. Here it is -  a culture blunder example.

"Nothing sucks like an Electorlux' - have you ever heard of this advertisement? No? I think it's now part of the history - you should know it!




Let me present you the story shortly. This slogan appeared to be very famous and gained Electrolux (reminder: a  Swedish household goods producer) lot's of consumers in England. It was so popular over there, the the ad won an award in one of the competitions. The thing is that they didn't like it in America. The Brits sense of humor is one of it's kind. The Americans didn't like the ambiguity of the word "suck" but the Swedish hoped that the double meaning would get them the attention. Partly, they achieved it - they got attention, but not really a good one.

Another mistake that a famous European brand of dried soups -  Knorr, has made while introducing its core products to the US.


The company had even conducted market research and asked American consumers if they would be willing to buy the product. The answer was positive - after testing a soup, the passersby, said they would buy it if the product was available  However, the sales were very low, after the Knorr dried soups appeared on shop shelves. The company started looking for the "root" of the problem, and they found out that during the testing they didn't say that it takes around 15-20 mins to prepare the soup, and that it requires some stirring as well. If the testers have known that before, they would have shown less interest in buying that kind of soup.

I could talk about the blunders all day long but the point is, what can we learn from those mistakes?

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How changing the existing brand image may destroy your brand

Few days ago, at my Digital Advertising class, we had a discussion how the social media response to the changes of brand image may play a significant role in the perception of the product. My teacher, Dr Matthew Wilson  showed us a story of the Tropicana juice changing its package. The CEO of the Arnell Group, Peter Arnell, the company which took care of the advertising of the Tropicana juice decided to change completely the traditional, "old school" package to new "modern" one.

 The decision turned up to be a disaster. 

Here are few comments that appeared all over the social media:

“Ugly”

“Cheap looking 7-11-esque packaging”

“Looks like a generic knock-off”

“This new packaging feels, at best, like a discount store brand”

“The juice’s new packaging was so bland and undistinguished it looked like the low rent made-from-concentrate stuff.”

Ouch..These comments do not look very flattering and pleasant, aren't they? Well I must admit, I do not like the new look of the Tropicana juice either. It is bland, undistinguished, common, looks like a generic brand. 

My question is now why they have changed the packaged that significantly ? People don't like changes, and if changes are inevitable, they cannot be dramatic. Especially if it comes to the everyday goods like orange juice. Consumers want the same things everyday as the routine gives the sense of stability. Were there any market researches conducted? They could have been, but we have to remember to choose appropriate things to measure. 

The thing that amazes me the most is the immediate response in the social media and how powerful the opinion is. After few weeks the new package was replaced by the old, wanted by everyone, familiar Tropicana package, even though Peter Arnell tried to convince the audience to his idea how the juice box should look like. Below you can watch a video with Peter Arnell explaining the failure of the new package. What do you think of it? 

To me he, seems to say to the consumers :" you are not intelligent enough to get the genius idea of the modern new design that shows the product itself or to understand the connection  the new squeeze cap with the family love" (which I think is brilliant, but I don't think of family when I saw it). 
Many people defined that previous logo with their childhood, the orange with the straw has always been a Tropicana juice image. This is what happens when you do not listen to the customers, if you do not put the customer in the centre of your marketing strategy, That's why the Arnell Group failed. That's why I think how the brand image, its logo can be even more important, powerful over the consumers than the product itself.

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