Brand Failures
Brand Failures Brand Failures
48 Brand failures easily, Pepsi remained aware of the ‘new consumer demand for purity.’ In 1994, the same year it launched Crystal, Pepsi decided it wanted a piece of the growing bottled water market. It therefore launched its own bottled water product, entitled Aquafina, which had considerably more success than Crystal in the US market. In addition to Crystal, there have been other, more general marketing problems for Pepsi over the years. In particular, it has had trouble differentiating its brand identity from Coca-Cola. As it wasn’t the first to market the cola category, Pepsi was never going to be the generic name. People rarely say, ‘I’m going to have a Pepsi’. Even when they have a Pepsi bottle in their fridge they would be more likely to say, ‘I’m going to have a Coke.’ However, although this situation couldn’t be avoided, Pepsi’s branding for many years failed to give the product a stand-alone identity. Crucially, Pepsi breached what Al and Laura Ries refer to as ‘The Law of the Color,’ one of their 22 Immutable Laws of Branding in the book of the same name. As they state: There is a powerful logic for selecting a color that is the opposite of your major competitors [. . .] Cola is a reddish-brown liquid so the logical color for a cola brand is red. Which is one reason why Coca-Cola has been using red for more than a hundred years. Pepsi-Cola made a poor choice. It picked red and blue as the brand’s colours. Red to symbolise cola and blue to differentiate the brand from Coca-Cola. For years Pepsi has struggled with a less-than-ideal response to Coke’s colour strategy. Recently, though, Pepsi has sacrificed red for mainly blue to create a stronger distinction between the two leading brands. Now Coca-Cola equals red and Pepsi equals blue. Lessons from Pepsi Don’t assume that gaps should always be filled. If you spot a hole in the market, it doesn’t mean that you should fill it. Just because clear cola didn’t exist, it didn’t mean it had to be invented. However, the previous success
Idea failures 49 the company had with its Diet Pepsi product (the first cola of its kind) had convinced Pepsi that there were more gaps to fill. Don’t relaunch a failed product. Crystal failed once, but Pepsi still believed the world was crying out for a clear cola. The second version fared even worse than the first. Differentiate yourself from your main competitor. For years Pepsi’s visual identity was diluted through its red and blue branding.
- Page 6 and 7: Brand Failures Matt Haig
- Page 8 and 9: Contents 1. Introduction 1 Why bran
- Page 10 and 11: Contents vii 6. Culture failures 15
- Page 12 and 13: 4 Brand failures didn’t matter. A
- Page 14 and 15: 6 Brand failures market for which i
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- Page 19: Some brand failures have proved so
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- Page 24 and 25: 16 Brand failures In other words, C
- Page 26 and 27: 18 Brand failures Lessons from New
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- Page 30 and 31: 22 Brand failures years previously
- Page 32 and 33: 24 Brand failures Mustang was the s
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- Page 38 and 39: 30 Brand failures 4 McDonald’s Ar
- Page 40 and 41: 32 Brand failures Lessons from Arch
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- Page 44 and 45: 36 Brand failures up with the idea
- Page 46 and 47: 38 Brand failures Factor two: cool
- Page 48 and 49: 40 Brand failures 6 Sony’s Godzil
- Page 50 and 51: 42 Brand failures the possible exce
- Page 52 and 53: 44 Brand failures 7 Persil Power On
- Page 54 and 55: 46 Brand failures But the advantage
- Page 58 and 59: 50 Brand failures 9 Earring Magic K
- Page 60 and 61: 52 Brand failures Lesson from Earri
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- Page 68 and 69: 60 Brand failures ‘There are risk
- Page 70 and 71: 62 Brand failures 13 Oranjolt The d
- Page 72 and 73: 64 Brand failures 14 La Femme Where
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- Page 76 and 77: 16 Clairol’s ‘Touch of Yoghurt
- Page 78 and 79: 18 Maxwell House ready-to-drink cof
- Page 80 and 81: 20 Thirsty Cat! and Thirsty Dog! Bo
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- Page 85 and 86: Extension failures 77 21 Harley Dav
- Page 87 and 88: Extension failures 79 making up the
- Page 89 and 90: Extension failures 81 Keep it tigh
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- Page 93 and 94: Extension failures 85 ‘No toothpa
- Page 95 and 96: Extension failures 87 24 Heinz All
- Page 97 and 98: Extension failures 89 Lessons from
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Idea failures 49<br />
the company had with its Diet Pepsi product (the first cola of its kind) had<br />
convinced Pepsi that there were more gaps to fill.<br />
Don’t relaunch a failed product. Crystal failed once, but Pepsi still believed<br />
the world was crying out for a clear cola. The second version fared even<br />
worse than the first.<br />
Differentiate yourself from your main competitor. For years Pepsi’s visual<br />
identity was diluted through its red and blue branding.
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