A Marketing Disaster Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: 3 Lessons From Recent Big Brand Fails

It's never been easier to build a brand. Right now with a little effort you can build a following on Instagram or Shopify, start selling stuff and create a nice small business for yourself. But, if you want to move things to the next level and become a real enterprise, you need to learn to market like the big guys.

Ironically, one of the best ways to do that is to watch what happens when they screw up. Branding failures aren't just entertaining. By illustrating just how terrible the fallout can be if you get things wrong, they illustrate the importance of having the right principles and systems in place. Through watching the stumbles of national brands, smaller businesses can learn what to do -- and not do -- to move up to the next level.

Helpfully, some of America's biggest companies have obliged with some pretty spectacular brand fails lately.

1. Amazon selling sugary cereals at Whole Foods

Like lots of other people, I was excited when Amazon bought Whole Foods. The whole premise of the deal was that the scale of Amazon would enable more people to access the quality, healthy food on offer at pricey Whole Foods. But, then recently I spoke to a few friends who reported seeing things like Honey Nut Cheerios on the shelves of their local Whole Foods.

Let me be clear: You're not supposed to be able to buy Honey Nut Cheerios at Whole Foods. The brand experience is all about health and quality, not processed, sugar-laden junk. Opening up a premium brand to more consumers can be a great move, but that's not what Jeff Bezos and Amazon appear to actually be doing with Whole Foods so far. Instead, they're violating the basic promise of the Whole Foods brand, and risking diluting it beyond all recognition.

This isn't just a temptation for behemoths like Amazon. Smaller brands face similar questions all the time as they start to grow and add new revenue streams. Is that new sponsorship or partnership actually in line with your values? Are you broadening the appeal of your brand or are you selling out? Adding new customers is great. Losing your own core identity isn't.

Lesson: Never forget your core mission. Filter all new revenue streams and partnerships through the lens of your values.

2. IHOP's half-baked IHOB stunt

I'm all for clever, disruptive marketing. Stunts can get people talking about your brand. But, not if you do them in the half-baked way IHOP recently did when it briefly changed its name to IHOB (for International House of Burgers) to highlight its new menu options.

I understand what IHOP was going for -- these days lots of carb-conscious customers aren't excited about sitting down to a giant stack of starchy pancakes and IHOP wanted to get the word out that they offer alternatives. But, its execution of the idea was just really weak. If you're going to go and disrupt the market in a radical way, you need to go all in.

Wendy's is a good example of a brand that succeeds. Its logo might be a sweet looking little girl, but on Twitter that little girl deals out some serious shade. It's outrageous, hilarious and consistent...

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/323368

===

by Idham Azhari