The Buzz Bin

Brand Expectations + Brand Perception = Brand Success/Failure

As pointed out by Rich Becker over at Copywrite, Ink. in a case study of Tom Cruise’s fallen brand (The plane crash pic was icing on the cake for this post)… “A brand is the net sum of all positive and negative impressions of the subject,” which, Becker defines as the “Fragile Brand Theory”.

Using Cruise as an example, Becker notes how “the 1995 off-screen Cruise brand came close to mirroring the image of the much-loved character Jerry Maguire (and most characters Cruise portrayed before that). He was a somewhat private but daring actor who, despite being overconfident at times (the classic pride comes before a fall syndrome so many of his characters endure), always managed to better himself and triumph in the face of insurmountable odds.

“That is a very different brand than the post-2005 Cruise brand we see today. Now, most of his impressions seem to suggest an arrogant and impulsive actor who frequently uses his fame to argue controversial topics if not create controversy while promoting beliefs grounded in Scientology. Actor first? We think not.”

Brands from any company, product or service can fall into this realm of ridicule. Miss Cellania from Mental Floss lists her picks for the 5 Cars That Became Metaphors – The Edsel, Corvair, Pinto, DeLorean, and Yugo – all of which have been the butt of many, many jokes.

And we just may see Second Life added to the mix sometime in the near future according to the recent article in Advertising Age – Second Life Losing Lock on Virtual Site Marketing. As the Brand Experience Lab points out, “I do lots of presentations for college students and most of the students I poll barely know what Second Life is, let alone spend much time playing on it.”

Brand failures are easy targets for ridicule because they are generally well-known, which allows us to share in a common experience. In addition, we tend to think of business as emotionless, allowing us to enjoy a guilt-free laugh since there are no feelings to be hurt.

So go ahead, laugh away at some of the brand failures of the past:

• Crystal Pepsi
• Smokeless Cigarettes
• EuroDisney
• Arthur Andersen
• Sony Betamax

And any others you want to add to the list.