Brand Failures

296 Brand failures
market is 18–24 year-olds the last thing you want to be telling them is that
you are 10 years old. They don’t care about what you were doing when they
were, in some cases, only eight years old.
The club’s reputation has also been tarnished by its association with drug
use. Merseyside Police expressed concerns in 2000 about the ‘drug culture’
at Cream, saying it could have taken more measures to prevent drug dealing
at the venue. In 1999, a 21-year-old woman died after collapsing on the
dance floor.
Although James Barton said after the club’s closure that the German brand
remains at ‘the forefront of youth culture’ there is an increasing amount of
evidence to the contrary. Its ‘Cream Collect’ album sold under 2,000 copies
in total.
Competitors have also been quick to isolate themselves from the Cream
closure, by blaming a lack of brand innovation. ‘Cream closing is a seminal
moment in club land history,’ Ministry of Sound managing director Mark
Rodol told the Independent newspaper. ‘It’s a lesson to club promoters that
you can’t sit still. Ministry of Sound’s music policy changes at least every
twelve months and has always done so, with our nights proving there’s still
thousands of clubbers looking for a great night out.’
Although it remains to be seen whether the Cream brand will turn sour,
or once again be able to rise to the top, there is no denying it needs a radical
overhaul if it is to survive. ‘Clubs like Cream no longer empathise with
customers,’ says Mixmag’s Crastke. ‘They’ve lost the trust of the kids. And
once you’ve lost the kids, it’s very hard to get them back.’
Lessons from Cream
Don’t contradict your brand values. If you’re a nightclub which is open until
six in the morning, your key market tends to be people under 24 years old.
It was a mistake then to emphasize the age and longevity of the Cream
brand to a market which cares little about such values.
Adapt or die. For youth brands, the only constant is change. The Cream
nightclub relied on the same tried and tested formula for too long, using
expensive DJs who had passed their sell-by date.
Avoid over-exposure. By 2000, Cream could be found everywhere. At
festivals, in clothes shops, in music stores, on TV adverts. As the brand
extended its line however, the identity became diluted and consequently
the club struggled to attract enough custom to keep it going.