Brand Failures

270 Brand failures
92 Kodak
Failing to stay ahead
Can a brand become too successful The short answer, of course, is no it
cannot. Is it possible to conceive that the success and popularity of a brand
such as Coca-Cola or McDonald’s could become a weakness Surely not. And
yet, the strongest brands are also those which are the most tied down.
Consumers know what they want from Coca-Cola (cola) and McDonald’s
(fast food) and they don’t want anything different. If McDonald’s wanted to
set up a vegetarian, high class restaurant, it would need to change its brand
name in order to attract customers. Coca-Cola has learnt this lesson from real
experience. When it launched a range of Coca-Cola clothes, sales were far
lower than had been expected. The trouble was, although Coca-Cola is an
internationally adored brand, people don’t want to wear it, they’d prefer to
drink it.
So to ask the question again, can a brand become too successful No,
providing the brand stays within the same product category. If a brand
becomes globally associated with one type of product, it is almost impossible
to change the consumer’s perception. After all, brands are names. If two
people have exactly the same name it can become confusing, and so it is with
products. But what if the product category itself changes, regardless of the
brand’s will This situation may never have affected Coca-Cola or McDonald’s,
as there will always be demand for cola and fast food, but it has affected
others, most notably Kodak.