Brand Failures: The Truth about the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time

by Matt Haig

Overview

What do Coca-Cola, McDonald's, IBM, Microsoft and Virgin all have in common? Yes, they are all global giants, but what they are less recognized for are the many branded products they have launched which bombed spectacularly - and at great cost.

Brand Failures takes a riveting look at how such disasters occur. This new edition of Matt Haig's best-selling book, provides the inside-story of 100 major brand blunders that make for jaw-dropping reading. Brand Failures explores the brands that have set sail with the help of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns only to sink without a trace. From acknowledged brand mistakes made by successful blue-chip companies to some lesser know but hilarious bomb-shells, it reveals what went wrong in every case and provides a valuable checklist of lessons learnt for each.

A tour of this fascinating hall of failure will alert you to potential dangers and show you how to ensure a long, healthy life for your brand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749462994
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	05/31/2011
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Matt Haig is an acclaimed writer and journalist. He is the author of the best-selling Brand Success, (previously published as Brand Royalty by Kogan Page) and also several best-selling novels, including The Radleys, The Dead Fathers Club and The Last Family in England (Vintage).

Table of Contents

** Chapter - 01: Introduction; ** Chapter - 02: Classic failures; ** Chapter - 03: Idea failures; ** Chapter - 04: Extension failures; ** Chapter - 05: PR failures; ** Chapter - 06: Culture failures; ** Chapter - 07: People failures; ** Chapter - 08: Business cycle failures; ** Chapter - 09: Rebranding failures; ** Chapter - 10: Internet and new technology failures; ** Chapter - 11: Tired brands

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Haig, a marketing consultant, is one of a new breed of writers producing marketing primers for the hyphenated age of e-marketing. This type of work is characterized by breezily written snippets of success or failure as either encouragement or admonition for the practitioner or for a new category of reader: the business voyeur. Thus these works are written in a readable and appealing format, as e-business fables. Examining 'the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time, ' Haig organizes these 100 "failures" into ten types, each with its own moral and admonition. These types include classic failures (e.g., New Coke), idea failures (e.g., R.J. Reynolds' smokeless cigarettes), extension failures (e.g., Harley Davidson perfume), culture failures (e.g., Kelloggs in India), and technology failures (e.g., Pets.com). The idea behind this work is that with knowledge these failures can be avoided, but this reviewer regards it as akin to Monday morning quarterbacking in its validity as an activity. None of this takes away the schadenfreude of this well-written, quick read. Useful more as a cultural artifact than classroom text, this book could serve as supplementary reading for advanced marketing courses and for business voyeurs who like a good read. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; and practitioners." — S. A. Schulman, CUNY Kingsborough Community College

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a lot of fun. Haig wants to educate as well as to entertain, and at this he succeeds."

Journal of Consumer Marketing

"An entertaining and useful read. As a ready crib for the most famous brand foul-ups, this book is hard to beat."

The Financial Times

"Haig intelligently discusses how multi-million dollar advertising campaigns launching new brands can sink without a trace. ... Learn from other's mistakes." — Library Journal

From the Publisher