Broken Brand of the Week Month
2. President Obama
3. Tied: Congress, Tiger Woods, Democrats and Anthem Blue Cross
Republican's, Take a Victory Lap!
The “winner” Toyota seemed a bit of an upset to me, especially because the media was having a picnic on the remains of the Tiger Woods carcass that week. Tiger had just given his first press conference after the brouhaha, and in spite of the fact that it was a media feeding frenzy, the readers of The Marketer’s Almanac saw Toyota and President Obama as more deserving of a damaged brand award. The GOP – the only nominee that did not receive a single vote - scores a big win, or at least it is the Party of No Self-inflicted Fiasco this week.
The Envelope, Please!
Admittedly, this poll was not scientific, the vote count didn’t quite break into double-digits, but the respondents were the erudite cream of the intellectual crop and brand cognoscenti, who are the readers of The Marketer’s Almanac. (I cast an errant vote for Anthem Blue Cross, but soon we shall see how and why my vote was so misguided. See, I learned something reading this blog!)
Post Poll Analysis: It Takes More Than Stupidity and Law Breaking to Break a Brand
We expect shady behavior from shady characters, so ruining a crime syndicate brand into the ground would take extraordinary indiscretions (maybe a string of good deeds). When the transgression is a flagrant violation of the explicit promise of the brand (not necessarily the law or morals of the land) the crowd starts throwing stones. That appears to be our readers’ definition of a “Broken Brand.” Thus, the votes of our learned readers (and, my misguided ballot) can be viewed as follows:
- Toyota positioned its brand as the auto company that had the lock on design and production quality, while it was trying to sweep dangerous flaws under the rug;
- The “change you can believe in” and “Yes we can” presidential brand got mired in the mud of governing, and seems too comfortable with the status quo;
- Tiger posed as the clean cut, All-American dedicated to his craft, family and the American way – the archetype of sports hero – NOT!
- Democrats given the power they wanted to change the paradigm and cowering;
- And, congress’s insistence that they are doing the people’s bidding yet only focused on raising money for the next campaign.
As for Anthem Blue Cross, while their action to raise rates at that particular moment was impressively stupid from a public relations point of view, it really didn’t break the brand. It was just a for profit company, striving for greater profits – that’s what they do.
The Crowd Hates Hypocrites
Watching a poll like this causes one to ponder what a broken brand is and how a winner manages to claim that prize when there is so much competition. Recall the brand implosion of the decade - the Catholic Church’s decade long scandal of sexual abuse and cover up. There are many examples of senators, congressman and others that have been caught in compromising situations – sending toe-tapping signals from stall-to-stall in an airport men’s room comes to mind – and, a host of other financial, sexual and other imaginative “indiscretions” of public figures and institutions, some of them even serial offenders. However, none of those stories seemed to last long nor create anything more than a partisan scramble for points in the intramural game of politics. Furthermore, institutions are rarely shaken at the foundation from the actions of the fringe minority of individuals and the efforts to cover up the scandal. The difference could be that violent public reaction seems reserved for payback for lying and/or hubris, not for the transgression even when it is considered quite serious.
The lesson? Live up to your brand bargain. There are two ways to do that: pay particular attention to policies that tread near the line of promise breaking; and, do not make brand promises that the company cannot keep.
There Are Plenty More Where These Came From
The “Broken Brand” feature is going to become a regular item of The Almanac, but we are going to change to “The Broken Brand of the Month.” In addition, there needs to be a way to do write-ins, which the blog gadget does not handle in the most efficient manner. To do a write in, post a comment on the Brand of the Month posting with the name of your choice and put a vote in the generic “Write In” slot and your candidate will appear in a few days with a vote next to his, her or its name.
Need a Gig? Fix a Brand!
The ultimate challenge is rehabilitation of the broken brand (think, Richard Nixon). This is where The Almanac’s army of creative thinkers and marketers has a forum to showcase its prodigious talent. When Akio Toyota reads your visionary plan to rescue his family and brand name from the gutter of busted images and brands, he may just decide to fire that good-for-nothing-white-shoe firm and hire YOU!
