Brand Disasters of 2010

We are unfailing in our belief that brands should be the beneficiaries of their branding and marketing efforts, and see positive consumer behavior in the marketplace: Sales; Profitability - things like that.

Happily, we have metrics that provide a consumer's eye view of the categories in which brands compete and because those metrics are emotionally-based they are predictive of what will happen, good or bad, in the months ahead.

When it came to 2010's brand and marketing disasters, we reviewed the balance sheet and offer the following: 

1. BP

The brand fell from 1st to 7th (of 7) on the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Index when the well exploded. UK's YouGov polls indicated no negative affects to the brand, while the financials suggest the brand has lost all of its value in one year. 

2. Toyota

The recalls - and attendant negative PR allegations that top execs knew, but failed to do anything - and liability suits resulted in a loss of nearly one quarter of the brand's value. 

3. Johnson & Johnson

Recalls can kill a brand, especially when you're talking about medicine for infants and children, having to shut down plants, and stop distribution of your biggest names. Harder to swallow is a brand hit of nearly 30%. 

4. Blackberry

Once the darling of businesspeople and of Wall Street, the brand has lost out to the iPhone, Android-based phones, and Samsung's and LG's (very) smart phones. Bottom line: brand value down nearly a third. 

The best thing about these lists is it's the end of the year, and brands can put it all behind them - but only if they can get out in front of consumer expectations. 

Contributed by: Robert Passikoff, President, Brand Keys

Sponsored By: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Comments

[Daniel Karpantschof]

All very good members of the list. I kinda miss both Apple and Gap though.

Apple for the PING fiasco and Gap for their new wordart logo.

Daniel

[Erik Pelton]

How could you leave the GAP - and their failed effort to introduce a new logo - off your list?

[Dave Brown]

I was going to say that GAP is glaringly absent for me as well..

[Robert Passikoff]

The GAP new logo introduction was, indeed, a marketing misstep and a social marketing fiasco, but not one that impacted sales and profitability in the ways of the action/inactions of BP, Toyota, J&J, and Blackberry. Yes, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing in terms of impacting levels of overall GAP brand engagement and most importantly sales. Self-appointed consumer designers were up in arms, but that didn't stop them from buying 60% sweaters at Christmas. There may be a thin line between stupidity and disaster, but ultimately it's whether the "disaster" significantly impacted the bottom line. If we didn't make that important distinction, we'd still be compiling the list!