Learning From History's Worst Marketing Mistakes
Try to avoid repeating these PR flops…
Running a business can sometimes feel like a lonely enterprise. What with chasing unpaid invoices and dealing with the daily challenges of the public, most entrepreneurs will occasionally wish they had a little extra help.
Fortunately, when it comes to marketing history can provide a great deal of useful information about how not to do things. Some of the world’s greatest marketing disasters now provide unambiguous guidance on how to avoid particular pitfalls, as well as offering reassurance that every firm gets something wrong occasionally…
- Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
In the 1980s, American Airlines promised customers that they could fly first class for the rest of their lives with no limits or restrictions, in exchange for just $250,000. By the time AA realised the scale of their miscalculation, one customer had flown across the Atlantic 16 times in a single month. Extracting themselves from this unconditional offer took years, and cost far more than the $1 million worth of annual flights individual passengers were enjoying.
2. Don’t rush to mimic competitors…
The story of New Coke is legendary. What’s arguably less well-known is the fact that New Coke was introduced because Coca-Cola had noticed their soft drink regularly came second in blind taste tests with its sweeter rival: Pepsi. Rather than sticking to its guns, Coca-Cola ended up back where they started after two rebrands, following a barrage of negative PR that continues to this day.
3. …But don’t ignore competitors altogether.
In the late 1990s, a company called Value America set out to become a global online retailer offering an unrivalled list of available products. Its attempt to out-Amazon Amazon failed, chiefly because senior executives paid no heed to what their competitors were doing. While other e-retailers provided a wide choice of products, Value America sold one or two products across thousands of different lines. Customers departed in droves, and the company imploded.
4. Use social media carefully.
A tweet sent by Kenneth Cole’s chairman in 2011 suggested that high-profile social unrest in Cairo was due to Egyptians rushing to explore his company’s new clothing range. While most of us would like to consider ourselves relatively amusing, humour is incredibly subjective. Attempting to exploit political unrest or news stories for PR gain is particularly inadvisable, especially given the way misplaced comments can spread across social media in minutes.
5. Don’t rush new products or services to market.
When Microsoft launched Windows 95 after three years of development, it represented a significant step up from its 3.1 predecessor. Windows Millennium Edition was rushed to market within a year, and it showed. Despite releasing three beta versions, the finished software was full of glitches and ran more slowly than the popular Windows 98 platform it was supposed to replace. Unsurprisingly, ME was killed off within a year, while 98 thrived.
6. Get a professional to produce your content.
With a seemingly endless catalogue of badly-written web copy and mangled marketing terminology online, it’s impossible to choose just one example of this phenomenon. Effective web copy has to do far more than merely describe a product or service. It requires brevity, impeccable spelling and grammar, an ability to explain technical details in layman’s terms, and an instinctive understanding of when to stop writing. A good copywriter will be able to pick out the relevant facts and ignore everything else, which is a talent worth paying for.