Brand Failures by Matt Haig, 0749444339, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Lack of depth analysis

I got this book for my marketing assignment and I was more than dissapointed. It can be interesting for leisure reading, but certainly this is not more than that. Some failures are described in less than a few sentences, especially in culture failures, which doesn't explain anything. It lacks depth of analysis and I do agree that it seems like a clips from the newspaper. Just flashy titles...

Insightful - Absolutely Fantastic

Ignore Atuls review!!!

This is a fantastic book, I got it as a christmas present and couldn't put it down, it's an amazing and easy read. The stories are facinating and you find yourself asking how boardrooms of execs can make such stupid mistakes as the ones mentioned throughout the book, such as the lack of research when launching brands overseas!

Although some of the stories are known such as New Coke and Betamax the book goes into more detail explaining the how's and why's as well as the knock on effets these had on each company.

Clear structure and incredibly well written, can't wait to buy the follow up, Brand Royalty.

I agree with Atul's statement that it's not a marketing textbook simply because it's not supposed to be.

Successful Book about Brand Failures

A successful attempt at piecing together several stories of industry failures over the past decades - some of which are pretty familiar - the failure of New Coke, Betamax (as compared to the success of VHS), The L'Oreal Crap stick (or is it perfume stick ?) and the Chevy Nova (Nova meaning no-go in Spanish) are some of the examples. It is a good attempt to divide the failures into 'Idea Failures', 'PR Failures', 'Culture Failures' etc.
I was in the midst of my MBA when I read this book and it surely gave me an edge when doing my presentations. The book may be about Brand Failures but in itself it is a success

Fantastic

This is a fantastic read. Gives a brief but incisive view of differnt types of brand failure. Examples are well written and easy to read, and more importnatly easy to remember. If you ever needed any examples to quote this is a must buy

What can be learned from such failures?

What we have here in this especially interesting as well as informative book is Haig's version of "the truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time." With this subtitle, Haig immediately sets himself up for lively disagreement concerning (a) the reasons for why certain brands fail and (b) his selection of the failures themselves. I value this book so highly because Haig (by assertion or implication) challenges his reader to examine her or his own current problems with branding. Frankly, his explanation of brand failure makes sense to me and all of the 100 failed brands he discusses serve seem worthy of examination. He identifies what he calls "the seven deadly sins of branding": amnesia, ego, megalomania, deception, fatigue, paranoia, and irrelevance. One or more is evident in each of the 100 brand failures on which he focuses.

Haig carefully organizes his material within ten chapters. It is easy enough for those who read this brief commentary to check out the Contents so I see no need to provide it. (Thanks Amazon!) He provides a "Lessons from...." section at the conclusion of most extended analyses. All of the usual suspects are discussed: New Coke, the Ford Edsel, Sony Betamax, McDonald's Arch DeLuxe, Campbell Soup (souper combo), Harley Davidson (perfume), Ben Gay (aspirin), Colgate (kitchen entrees). Pond's (toothpaste) in consumer products; as for dot.coms, Pets.com, VoicePod, and Excite@home. He even examines a number of PR fiascoes.

I take at least three lessons from Haig's book. First, even the largest organizations with the greatest resources (including some of the brightest people) can make bad brand decisions and sometimes repeat them with another failed attempt. Although they may be able to absorb or overcome such brand failure, almost all small organizations cannot. Second, that most brand failures result from launching a new product which encounters insufficient demand or marketing a current product for which demand is declining. Hence the importance of market research and especially of asking the customer. Ford did almost no research before introducing the Edsel nor did Coca-Cola before launching New Coke. Both line extensions were disasters. The overwhelming feedback from children surveyed indicated that they did not want Barbie's Ken to wear an earring but Mattel inserted one anyway. The third lesson is that the key to a brand's success (be it a product or service) is it authenticity. (You may prefer the word credibility.) Notice how intensively-hyped films may do well at the box office the first weekend but if they are duds, their sales tumble the following weekend and they are inevitably off the Top Ten list within a month or so, if not sooner. People are willing to try something new if they trust the provider. Lose that trust and there may never be an opportunity to re-earn it.

This is a lively, well-written, thought-provoking book. As I suggested earlier, its greatest value to each reader will be determined by what she or he has learned from Haig, and then, how much of that can be applied expeditiously and (more to the point) effectively.

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