Dreaming of Brand Success? Want to see some case studies on great brand practice? Sometimes you learn a lot more from failures than you do successes...so we've brought together some great brand failures that we celebrate as offering us valuable lessons for great brand success. Enjoy!

1. DREAMING OF
BRAND FAILURE

2. BUTTERFLY IS A LONDON BASED BRAND & INNOVATION SPECIALIST
WITH A SPECIFIC EXPERTISE IN EMERGING MARKETS

3. WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT BRAND FAILURES...
...THEY TEACH US SO MUCH

4. 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?

5. SOME BRANDS JUST
LOST THEIR WAY A BIT...

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Pear’s soap loyalists were shocked when new brand owners changed
the original recipe, and they were forced to change it back.

10. Missing the moment...
of the digital age.
Kodak had had its moment when it failed to answer the call of the digital age.

11. 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
camera’s arrival.

12. It’s 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.

13. Danone wanting to lose the identity of this much-loved
Hungarian biscuit proved misguided: locals wanted to
access, not become, western.

14. Using white carnations in Hong Kong
to celebrate a new route showed little
thought for the local convention of
this colour being for funerals.

15. Home made soup is so much better in Russia...

16. WE DREAM OF BRAND FAILURE,
OF MAKING MISTAKES...
Very smart people make mistakes.
The trick is not to repeat them.

17. “Anyone who has never made a mistake
has never tried anything new”
Albert Einstein

18. “If you’re not failing every now
and again, it’s a sign you’re not
doing anything very innovative”
Woody Allen

19. 3 GREAT FAILURE
CASE STUDIES...

20. Your biggest competitor
is stealing your share

21. Coca Cola seemed to listen to what Pepsi told
them about their own brand – was there really
something wrong with the flavour?

22. What Coke hadn’t realised was how deeply rooted the
relationship with the total brand (not just a product) was.

23. “Coca Cola is the sublimated
essence of all that America
stands for.”
William Allen White

24. “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.

26. Even with only 2% share, Kellogg’s in India had the promise
of 18 million consumers. How could you go wrong?

27. But Kellogg’s 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.

28. Not recognising cultural preferences, including storing fresh milk
and cost per unit in a low per capita income country, all cost
Kellogg’s dearly, and gave them a beleaguered launch.

29. In its portfolio Kellogg’s now has porridge. This hot cereal,
a hangover from the Raj and the Scott’s Guards, is actually
already culturally imbedded in Indian culture

30. Nokia had been synonymous
with all that was great in the
early world of mobile phone
technology.

31. But they didn’t keep up with technology and how phones
now bring you email, cameras, music and the internet.

32. And they failed to understand the relationship people now have
with their phones as a communication partner, not just a phone.

33. 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.

34. With a much lowered market share the once
dominant brand will now be playing catch up.
2009 2011
48% 29%

35. GOLDEN RULES TO
BRAND FAILURE
So if you want your brand to fail, here are our top 10 tips...

36. 1
Look at the product
not the brand...

37. Never be
emotional...

38. 3 Over extend...

39. Give it a
terrible name...

40. Pay no attention
to cultural nuances
5

41. Focus too
much on your
competition...

42. Abuse transparency
of social media...

43. 8
Listen to
what your
consumers
say...

44. 9
Think the PR campaign
will save you later….
rather than doing the
right thing immediately
after the crisis.

45. Brand Arrogance

46. HOW CAN WE FULFIL A BRAND DREAM?

47. Wonderful handbags, clothes and
shoes… well made products in stunning
designs. But their chair, Robert Polet,
knows he doesn’t 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

48. 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 aren’t intruders
into the bastion of reason. we feel before we think.
In fact we feel in order to think.“
Descartes’ Error, Antonio Damasi

49. SO WE GIVE YOU THE SIMPLE
BUTTERFLY RULES
FOR SUCCESS...

50. U n de rst a n di n g
the d rea m

51. Consistency
of message at
all touch points

52. C elebra ting
ltura l nu ances
cu

53. Listen, listen, listen...
But ask me the
right questions

54. Simply 4 rules; just not always simple to realise effectively.
Learning from the rest can help you do a great job...
rst a n di n g Consistency
U n de of message at
t h e d rea m all touch points
g
Celebratin Listen, listen, listen...
cultur al nuances But ask me the
right questions

55. Understanding the dream
If you don’t understand your own
brand’s 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 don’t forget to listen, listen well
and listen often to what they tell you
they want and need from you.

56. THANK YOU
Find us on
Bianca Cawthorne
bianca@butterflylondon.com
Deirdre Findlay
deirdre@butterflylondon.com
www.butterflylondon.com