Worst Brand Disasters of the Decade
The first decade of the new millennium is four months gone, so this is a good time to look at the brand disasters of that decade from the perspective of the new decade. With that in mind, I've compiled the five most devastating brand debacles that played out over the past 10 years. All of these disasters represent a massive decline in brand equity -- a brand marketer's worst nightmare... and then some.
CLICK to see brand disaster #5 »
RELATED POST:
Arthur Andersen was once among the "big five" -- the most trusted firms in America. The entire idea of a "big five" CPA firm is that you're a company that investors trust to ensure there's no hanky-panky. But when the Enron mess hit the proverbial fan in 2001, it was clear that Andersen not only failed to blow the whistle, they'd hid the whistle where the sun don't shine. Rather than representing the interests of the investors, Andersen got down and dirty with the bad guys, and as a result, the brand became indelibly associated with criminal behavior, resulting in the Andersen driven out of business.CLICK to see brand disaster #4 »
BRAND DISASTER OF THE DECADE #4: "BUSH"
There was once a time when people were talking about a Bush dynasty, with Jeb and Neil as heirs apparent. No longer. Ten years later, and the Bush brand is so toxic that it's national news when some guy in the boonies puts up a billboard praising the former president. While Obama is taking the much of the heat for the mess that Bush left the country, most people remember that it was Bush that started an unnecessary $2 trillion war and ran the economy into the toilet. So don't plan on seeing the Bush brand on a national ticket any time soon.
CLICK to see brand disaster #3 »
BRAND DISASTER OF THE DECADE #3: "ISLAM"
Previous to 9/11, Islam was one of the fast-growth religions in the United States. Since then, the religion has become associated (in many people's minds) with terrorism, intolerance and ignorance. Even though Islam has a long history of art, literature and general enlightenment, after the last decade, much of the non-Muslim population of the world now sees the Islam brand as a proxy for the worst excesses of Arab culture, like honor killings, child brides, suicide bombing, cutting off hands, and so forth. It's not fair, but brand image ain't about what's fair; it's about how people perceive your product.
CLICK to see brand disaster #2 »
BRAND DISASTER OF THE DECADE #2: "THE POPE"
There's no question that Pope John-Paul II was going to be a hard act to follow, but the college of cardinals weren't wearing their "build brand equity" red hats when they chose Joseph Ratzinger as the next pontiff. It's hard to keep a brand image positive when your spokesman looks like Gollum's second cousin, and it's even harder when he's the guy who's got to explain to the world why the church kept letting pedophile priests off the hook. Once again, it's probably not fair to blame the guy for the scope of the problem, but there's no question that the pope brand was plenty stronger when JP2 was holding court.
CLICK to see brand disaster #1 »
BRAND DISASTER OF THE DECADE #1: "WALL STREET"
Time was that "Wall Street" was the gold standard of business success. The people who worked there were "Masters of the Universe" (to quote "Bonfire of the Vanities") and even the street's evil avatar -- Gordon Gecko -- was a wicked sexy guy. After the big crash at the end of the decade, however, it's hard to find anybody who doesn't think Wall Street is a collection of crooks and fools. Consider: even though the finance industry pays Congress (even some Democrats!) millions of dollars in bribes (oops, I mean "campaign contributions"), there's still a good chance "Wall Street" will get some additional government regulation. Now that's brand toxicity... with a vengeance.
CLICK to see the runner-up »
BRAND DISASTER "RUNNER UP": "AOL"
Time was when AOL was all the rage. It was a "star" of the popular movie "You've Got Mail" and there were so many AOL install CDs in the world that environmentalists were warning that the CDs might eventually crowd human beings of the planet. (Not really, but you know what I mean.) Then came the big merger with Time Warner, a victory of the dot-com world over the world of traditional media. Unfortunately, in order to survive, AOL had to be better than the plain ol' Internet. Instead, AOL was infinitely worse... lousy content, no email archiving, heavy-handed restrictions, and charging for what was free elsewhere. An inevitable nosedive followed.
READERS: Any OTHER big brand disasters that I missed?
NOTE: I discuss the reasons behind this post in post:
- Biggest Brand Winners of the Decade (related post)
- 10 Worst Brand Blunders of 2009 (my picks)
- More Brand Blunders of 2009 (reader picks)