Knock, knock. Who’s there? A/B Testing. A/B Testing, who? Would this joke be funnier if it were about screwing in a lightbulb? Did you get that? I’m sorry. You know how A/B testing is about….. oh never mind! If I have to explain my joke…. wahbammm Delete! Branding is like that – if it’s too insider if you need to explain it to your audience – Wahhbamm people have moved on to your competitor. And over the years we’ve seen some really terrible, like, top branding fails – the sort that makes us wonder how they ever saw the light of day! Let’s learn from them so we can avoid these Epic Branding Fails.
When big brands get it wrong.
The big, successful brands that have been around for so long would have got branding right – this assumption is fair to make. However, the fact is that even big brands do get it really, really wrong from time to time. In fact, some of the top branding fails are the ones from the biggest brands – a case of the higher they are, the harder they fall. It is difficult to imagine that Heineken, Frito Lay, Kodak, ESPN, Facebook, North Face, Singapore Airlines, GM, Aztek, and many others made some howlers. I’m telling all these stories in the newest episode of Inspiration to Millions. These stories have brand lessons in them – mistakes you can avoid.
One of the recent-most branding blunders is that of Singapore Airlines. In times of COVID, when people longed to travel but couldn’t, the airline was offering trips that were basically joyrides. They sold tickets for trips on airplanes that took off from Changi, flew around for a few hours, and then landed back at Changi. There was outrage at this wasteful, conspicuous consumption; particularly from online eco-warriors. They discontinued this but then the airline offered people the chance to indulge travel nostalgia by getting on board a flight to ‘enjoy’ some airline food. They would go through a security check, get on board and pay for the experience – basically a bad idea to replace another bad idea. This was a successful beloved brand making a mistake, and then making it again!
When messaging becomes a branding fail.
Sometimes, brands really mess up the sort of message they send – via their adverts, their social media messaging, and so on. The Heineken ad with the tagline sometimes lighter is better riled by social media influencers and others led by Chance the rapper. The perception was that this was a brand deliberately trying to grab eyeballs by courting a racism controversy. Most people would remember the Kendall Jenner ad that Pepsi had to pull – because of the tone deaf manner in which it tried to piggyback ride on the Black Lives Matter movement. And then AT&T told people “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” – after the Boston Marathon bombing! Talk about callous!
In this episode, I really get into all the top branding fails of this century, and why what these big brands did were such bad ideas. I’m going to tell you some great stories and explain the lesson in each of those – lessons you can learn for your own brand! Don’t miss it!