IIPM, GURGAON
In
the 90s, Hoover offered its British market, something very novel. They would get a chance to fly to the US for free if they spent £100 on Hoover products. The offer, open only for very limited period, resulted in about 22,000 people scrambling into Hoover showrooms, buying vacuum cleaners they did not need. What Hoover was giving away for free was worth twice as much as they were asking the consumer to spend. It was something which was too good to be true! People were buying Hoover just to get the free tickets.What the company failed to realise was, though the offer was for a very limited period, the number of people jumping on to the bandwagon would ensure Hoover’s costs shooting up, sky high. In fact, consumers became so awash that papers were soon full of ads of sale of second hand Hoover vacuum cleaners – some still in their boxes. Couples getting married even warned, they did not want Hoover’s products as presents. It was one of the biggest marketing gaffes. The company eventually landed up paying £50 million for the tickets and was forced to sell up to Italian washing machine maker, Candy!
In the 90s again, P&G was ruling the European fabric detergent. To get back its foothold in the market, its arch-rival, Unilever, introduced a new detergent called ‘Power’. It had a secret ingredient, namely manganese, which could rip out even the ‘stubbornest’ of stains. The product was launched as Omo Power in Netherlands, as Persil Power in the UK, and as Skip Power in France. Unilever had planned a marketing blitzkrieg in Europe to fight for the number one slot and take it away from P&G. Not to sit and wait and watch in the wings, P&G did its own research and came upon an interesting fact. It discovered that the new washing powder produced holes in boxer shorts! P&G hired a PR firm and inundated the market with a campaign showing lots of pictures of clothes damaged by ‘Power’. Though Unilever tried to fight it back, the consumers decided to step aside and switch to safer brands. Eventually, Unilever had to pull out its product and concede defeat after spending more than £300 million on developing, manufacturing and marketing Power products!
Dasani was launched in the US by Coca-Cola as bottled purified water, and soon was a roaring success. Encouraged by this, the company launched the water in Britain too. However, someone discovered that unlike most bottled waters in Britain, which are sourced from glaciers or natural springs, Coke got its from the tap. All it did was purify it and add some minerals. The next day papers were covered with headlines that read, “Coke sells tap water for 95p!” When someone as big as Coke goofs up, the media has a field day.
Coke got a huge amount of negative press coverage. In just five weeks, Dasani was withdrawn from the market, even though it was the purest water available. When your marketing goes wrong, everything goes wrong – since the whole world comes to know about it and the dent it puts is big and deep! You have to have your marketing principles absolutely right, or else failure is certain.
Olympia was a brand of beer which was a pale lager, very similar to Coors. However, it had an image problem. Young people did not identify with it. So the company decided to make advertisements that would appeal to the young. At the same time, it changed its packaging, too, to emphasize the lightness of Olympia. Back in the brewery, the brew-masters know that Europeans liked a richer tasting beer and modified the taste of Olympia. In the blind-taste-test, it came out a clear winner as compared to all other beers. Still, the product failed miserably. While the ads and the packaging had emphasized the lightness of the beer, when the consumer tasted Olympia, it was not so. Instead of judging it as a “rich tasting beer,” it was branded as the “bad light beer.” This mismatch ruined Olympia. The brewers had worked hard on the taste, the ad agency had worked hard on the ads, yet, the brewery was closed down. A sad demise of a product due to mis-marketing.
Marketing wars, as they say, are fought in mind. One has to be very clear about market perception of the product and weave all marketing ideas in-sync with it. Or else, be sure the product will land up in Ithaca, New York. It’s a museum which houses, among other things, marketing disasters and dumb ideas. You would find strange exhibits like – ‘Garlic Cake’ (I wonder who could have tasted it!) or “Dr. Care Toothpaste (a toothpaste in an aerosol can!).
Surprisingly, your product need not be bad to fail. In most of the cases, the product is great. It could fail because someone simply failed to communicate the product’s benefits properly to the audience. The concept of “golden eye technology” was developed by Videocon. However, it was marketed so perfectly by LG that one felt they came out with it first! Zen is a good car still. Today, it’s gathering cobwebs in the garage and no one wants it. It failed to market its benefits efficiently.
Strand was a brand of cigarette, which was advertised using the best of talent. Its jingle was written by the very famous Cliff Adams. The model was Terence Brooks, who looked like Frank Sinatra. He was shown standing on a lonely street in London, wearing a trench coat, a hat and lighting a cigarette, as a haunting melody enveloped him. It all looked so good. And finally, the punch line “You are never alone with a Strand!” As expected, the agency was barraged with enquiries. No one was bothered about the cigarette. Everyone wanted the music! The people perceived the cigarette to be a loner’s cigarette; and no one wanted to be termed that. The product had to be withdrawn while Cliff Adams rose the popularity charts for his music and released a hit single. “The Lonely Man Theme.” At least someone benefitted!
Such goof-ups leave everyone bewildered. Vidal Sassoon came out with its “Wash & Go” shampoo. Someone misinterpreted it as “I wash my hair, go.” The shampoo could never again find a place on the supermarket shelves! In Spain, Coca-Cola came out with its innovative 2 litre bottles, but they did not fit into the local refrigerators of the Spanish market. The product had to be withdrawn!
Great products fail for no fault of theirs. However, some people have made it their business to find out such brands from the corporate trash bins and turn them around. One such man is Jeffrey Himmel. He believes, “If you have the right product and do the proper kind of advertising, the cash register is going to ring.”
Ovaltine was already assigned to the bottom-most shelves of stores and had started fading in the consumer’s memory. Jeffrey picked it up. Made simple ads reminding people, their old favourite was still around. Wherever he got the cheapest rates, he bought those slots and bombarded the air-waves with these ads. In 100 days, sales doubled. The annual sales of the product jumped from $13 million to $26 million!
This is a fact – and this magazine that you are reading is proof of it – business is marketing. You need to know and understand the power of a good marketing campaign. Put in your best efforts here. Or else be ready to write the epitaph of your brand for it to be buried in the brand graveyards to “Requiescat In Pace” R.I.P.
Copyright © : Rajita Chaudhuri and Planman Media.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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