It’s an information age, an era of consumerism, and digital technology is the booster rocket of brand awareness. There’s never been more powerful tools at the disposal of marketers and advertisers. Your company’s brand can bask in the sunlight, your company’s products can soak up the sales, but at the same time, mistakes have never been subject to more exposure. Today’s branding can backfire in spectacular fashion. It’s more important than ever to scrutinize every brand message. Cases in point ahead.
Don’t Become Delusional About Your Product
Don’t infuse your brand or product with ineffable qualities and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! In video/ads featuring Kendell Jenner, Pepsi had her ameliorate a confrontation between law enforcement and Black Lives Matter protestors. She handed an officer a can of cola which apparently is a unifying force. It’s not. Coke did its “Like to Buy the World a Coke” spots, but the drink is a lyrical sidebar to more important things in the jingle. This Pepsi ad was ridiculous and cost the president of the company his job.
Fast Food Ads Shouldn’t Be in Bad Taste
In 2017, McDonald’s decided to run a commercial in the UK featuring a young boy talking with his mom about his dead father. It ends with them at Mickey D’s, having a filet-o-fish sandwich. Apparently, that was his father’s favorite, too. Nothing wrong with an ad focused on life’s poignant moments, but they hardly ever involve tartar sauce. Why couldn’t the boy and his living dad return from a fishing trip empty handed, but stop at a McDonald’s to enjoy the fish?
Don’t Put Cyanide in Your Burger
At first glance this wasn’t a bad marketing idea. Burger King came up with a campaign for smart devices that would read a list of product ingredients posted on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Predictably, the posts were hacked, and Burger King ingredients falsely listed cyanide.
Don’t Compete When You Can’t Win
Chances are, when you think of a search engine, you think of Google. “Google it,” or “I just Googled it,” are common expressions. Microsoft tried to change that with a campaign built around their own search engine, Bing. The theme was “Bing and decide,” but few decided to Bing. Certain things become so ingrained you can’t change them. Kleenex is a brand name, but we use it generically. We’ve worked with credit unions for more than 20 years. One had an understandable aversion to the word “banking.” The idea of “credit unioning” was talked about semi-seriously but luckily, we talked them out of it.
Ideas need to be vetted even more precisely these days. Show your idea to a diverse group of people, different generations. Try to execute your campaign in a way that protects against sabotage. It’s not an easy process but a good agency can help. We can think of one.