Despite the weight placed on them by most marketers, brands are actually very fragile things.
Vast amounts of money, and many years, can be poured into them, all sorts of agencies can slavishly devote themselves (for a fee of course) to them, they can be hailed industry wide as the future of, well, the industry. And yet they can be flushed down the toilet in a heartbeat.
This can happen for many, many reasons, but two examples have caught my attention recently (well, they were both on the front page of the magazine that’s been sat on my desk for a good week):
Dove puts its faith in science
You know the multi award winning, incredibly popular campaign for real beauty? The one that redefined marketing to women, revolutionising their portrayal in advertising in the process? The one that stretched beyond a campaign to become a globally-recognised brand identity, an identity that stood for something in a crowded ‘me too’ market place. An identity that people could put their faith in?
It’s gone.
Instead, they’re doing exactly the same as every beauty ad since the dawn of time: science. Or as I hilariously refer to it as: sighence (yes my colleagues are very, very lucky).
So that’s that up the swanny then.
The new campaign is the work of Ogilvy, the same agency that masterfully created the real beauty schtick. But in the words of their founding father, Mr D Ogilvy Esq. “..nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.”
Toyota fails to put the brakes on PR disaster
One day you’re one of the most successful car brands around, with a reputation for reliability, quality and green, sustainable stuff. One faulty pedal, and one massive PR snowball, later, and you’re recalling hundreds of thousands of cars and facing potential ruin.
I think that qualifies as ‘bad news’.
Of course, I may be wrong. Dove’s new work may redefine the faux science, badly-dubbed, ‘Here comes the science’ genre. And Toyota’s little oopsie moment may be old news in a week or so.
But I doubt it.
Tom Hurrell is initiating a campaign for real brand beauty.
It’s sad to see the back of ‘real beauty’. That campaign is just as relevant today as it was when it launched. Probably more so judging by emo-dandy Gok Wan’s incessant popularity.
On the same note, what was going through the minds of Guinness’ marketing team when they ditched one of the greatest lines in advertising history to replace it with some nonsensical marketing fluff that might as well be selling engine oil?
Time won’t look favourably on these decisions. Just compare the strength of Orange’s brand back when they had ‘The future’s bright’ to what it is now that they’re propagating generic forgettable garbage about hugging strangers on rainbows (or whatever, I forget).
The lesson here – if it aint broke don’t fix it.
Unless you’ve got a Prius.
Boredom ’tis a terrible thing. As my mother always would sagely advise: “interesting people don’t get bored”. And indeed it is a challenge of an agency’s maturity to evolve a brand – being grown up enough to know when to maintain, and when to deviate for reasons other than self-interest or avarice. But the big shops aren’t agile enough to change their business model, and so are disincentivised to maintain a great idea as they make their money through conjouring rags in the emperor’s court.
One of the great strategies in advertising was the ‘Real beauty’ idea.
Some amazing work that I’m sure frustrated alot of creatives/planners around the world with the thought..’I wish I had done that!’ I doubt there will be many ad executives running about proud of another blue liquid ‘science’ advertising strategy. A Real shame!
perhaps the old adage There’s no such thing as bad publicity is true after all – apparently Toyota’s fan base on facebook has risen 10% since the debacle you mentioned http://bit.ly/dofMFt