The Tropicana rebrand did not go down well. Image / Campaign Asia
Marketing folklore is replete with examples of branding errors that leave executives red-faced and customers furious or – even worse – laughing out loud.
As Vodafone peels off the red livery that has baked in the Kiwi gaze since 1998, chief executive Jason Paris could do well to avoid the mishaps that have come before.
There is perhaps no rebrand that sparks greater schadenfreude than Coca-Cola's attempt to change its ancient recipe.
Driven by the insecurity that customers often preferred the taste of Pepsi in blind test tastes, the executives at Coca-Cola set about making a new variation that consumers liked better. Everything was going so well in the labs. Over the course of a year, they developed a range of sugary potions before finally settling on one that worked. The only problem is that what works in the lab doesn't always work in the real world. And when New Coke was unleashed, the public hated it.
As Auckland University marketing expert Bodo Lang explained to the Front Page podcast, it was a complete flop.
"What Coke had not understood is that it's not just about taste, but it's about the brand. Coke was part of the American fabric, especially back then. So what people were saying is: 'Don't mess with America'."
Between 2012 and 2014, ketchup brand Heinz used a QR code on its bottles as part of a promotion. By 2015, they decided to use the code on their labels. The only problem is that some genius in the marketing team had forgotten to check if they still owned the website linking from the QR code. It turns out they didn't – and it was now owned by a pornography website. Anyone who scanned the code would end up being forwarded to this porn site.
This makes the shady tactics of linking Efeso Collins' name to Leo Molloy look like an amateur example of trolling in comparison.
Nothing boosts sales quite as quickly as expanding into new territory. In doing that, it really pays to have some cultural awareness of the slang used in those countries before deciding to introduce your brand to different countries.
Mitsubishi learnt this lesson the hard way when it entered the Spanish and Latin American markets with its Pajero SUV range. It turns out that "Pajero" translates to "W***er" in Spanish. Suffice to say, Spanish speakers weren't too eager to have that emblazoned on the back of their cars.
Ford also got a 101 course on cultural nuance when it introduced the "Pinto" into Brazil. The car flopped – in no small part (if you'll excuse the pun) because "Pinto" means "small penis" in Brazilian Portuguese slang.
In 2009, Radio Shack spent an eye-watering US$200m ($350m) in changing the name of its company from Radio Shack to The Shack in a bid to become more modern. Radios were, of course, not as hip as they once were and they wanted to seem with the times.
The problem is that no one asked for this change – and it ultimately ended up alienating their loyal fans while attracting no one new to the business. It also had the inadvertent effect of letting the audience know that the company was feeling deeply concerned about becoming irrelevant in a changing world. It turns out that they weren't far off. And that there wasn't much they could do about it.
Even the masters of branding can get it wrong at times. Apple made a huge misstep when in 2014 the company forced a U2 album onto every iTunes-subscribed device – we're talking iPhones, iPads, everything.
The PR stunt cost Apple around US$100m ($175m) and achieved little beyond pointing out that U2 wasn't quite as universally adored as the company thought. It also led to questions about consent and what tech companies should be allowed to upload onto your devices without your knowledge. Chances are that's a mistake Apple will not be repeating any time soon.
In an effort to modernise its brand in 2008, Tropicana committed one of the greatest unforced errors in branding history.
The company replaced its longstanding brand image of a straw sticking out of an orange for an uber modern design featuring an amorphous splurge of orange across the bottle. It look so trendy, but it had absolutely no soul. And consumers responded with their feet, as the brand lost in excess of US$100m ($175m) in sales. It's little surprise that they hastily returned to the original branding.
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