Brand Failures

96 Brand failures
27 Bic underwear
Strange but true
Harley Davidson perfume. Coors spring water. Both of these were doomed
to failure because of the brand name’s attachment to an unrelated product.
However, the prize for the most bizarre brand extension must go to Bic.
The company, best known for producing disposable pens, thought its
brand name was strong enough to be applied to other categories. Indeed, it
had already achieved success with disposable cigarette lighters and safety
razors. The unifying factor here was ‘disposability’. Bic pens, lighters and
razors were all throw-away goods. Furthermore, Bic could exploit its well
established distribution network and sell the lighters and razors in the same
outlets as its pens.
However, when the Bic brand applied its name to women’s underwear,
consisting of a line of ‘disposable pantyhose’ they were unable to attract
customers. Okay, so the disposability element was still there. But that was
about it. Consumers were unable to see any link between Bic’s other products
and underwear, because of course there was no link.
The main problem was that the company insisted on using the Bic name.
As marketing writer Al Ries has observed, using the same name in unrelated
categories can create difficulties. ‘If you have a powerful perception for one
class of product, it becomes almost impossible to extend that perception to
a different class,’ he argues. ‘Names have power, but only in the camp in
which they have credentials and when they get out of their camp, when they
lose focus, they also lose their power.’ Although this doesn’t hold true for