Brand Failures

Internet and new technology failures 255
Understand the importance of timing. A September launch campaign for a
November launch was an inevitable waste of money.
Go for cost-effective marketing. Towards the end of boo’s lifespan the
company promoted a money-off scheme. ‘By far the most effective means
of advertising the scheme turned out to be not expensive online banners
or newspaper advertising by emails,’ says boo co-founder Ernst Malmsten.
This unsurprising realization came rather too late.
Make sure your Web site works. With any Web site, particularly one with
an e-commerce facility, it is best to go for a lowest common denominator
approach. In other words, make sure it works on every customer’s computer.
Appreciate that publicity works both ways. If you put your brand under the
media spotlight too early, every mistake you make will be noticed.
Remember that publicity is good only when it is justified. Unless you can
back it up with a solid brand performance it will turn against you.
Don’t run a business with a crystal ball. Running any business can be
expensive, but if your sales figures are in the thousands, you probably
shouldn’t be spending millions in the hope that sales will improve in the
future. Leave overly optimistic and unsupportable predictions to fortunetellers
and concentrate on the present reality.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. One of the main factors that contributed to
boo’s speedy demise was the decision to launch in 18 different countries
simultaneously. A similar advertising campaign and identical Web site for
each national market may have seemed like a good way to unify a global
brand identity, but this costly and misguided strategy has subsequently
become the archetypal ‘how not to’ example for businesses seeking to
attract global audiences.