Big Brand
Failures; Lessons to Learn From
A good marketing
strategy is the
most effective way to increase
the brand awareness.
But, when the marketing strategies go wrong and turn into a marketing failure
then it can be the major reason behind the fall of your brand.
Maintaining the brand value and strategy is a challenging
journey, even when you reach great heights. Always take the right decision as
single marketing blunder can destroy your brand completely.
In this age of rapidly changing
technology either you have to adapt the change with time or you fail. Those who
refuse to improve become redundant and irrelevant to the industry one day.
This case study talks about how fairly
large marketing mistakes of big brands leaded to their devastation. If we come
to seek examples there are many, yet here we have picked up 3 known
names, Kingfisher, Kodak and Nokia, whose
stories are mere enough to let you know the failure reasons.
1) The Rise, Dominance and Fall of Kingfisher
About
Kingfisher
In 2003, Kingfisher Airlines Limited was founded by Vijay Malllya as a premium and world-class
airline group. The airline was based in Bangalore India and had more than 400
flights per day (Domestic & International). It used to be the most admired
name in Asia-Pacific region.
The
Rise of Kingfisher Airlines
On its peak time, it was the 2nd largest
airline, in terms of carrying the number of passengers. The quality and
comfortable service attracted many passengers in the initial years. And, then
the Kingfisher acquired
Air Deccan in
2007.
In just 3 years after touching the
skies, the first international Bengaluru-London flight in 2008 was launched.
Marketing
Strategy
They promoted the brand through all
media channels like Radio, Television, Print, Multiplexes, Malls and in their
In-flight magazines too.
·
In just 2 years, the airlines achieved the
aviation market share of 10%.
·
During 2007, they had the most aggressive
expansion plans of all Indian carriers.
· In June 2007, their influence in the market was
increased with the acquisition of 26% shareholding of Air Deccan Airlines.
· During February 2009, more than 900,000
passengers flew with Kingfisher giving it the highest marketing share in India.
How
Brand turned into Non-Performing Asset?
·
By the end of the March 2008, company was under
the debt of INR 934 cr and net losses continued to widen in the following
financial year.
·
Acquisition of Air Deccan marked the end of
Kingfisher Airlines. By the year 2009-10, airlines accumulated the debt of over
INR 7,000 cr as the losses continued to pile up. 2010 was the year when it
turned into a non-performing asset for banks.
·
In 2012, the airlines operations were shut down
as the DGCA suspended its flying license.
What
Went Wrong?
·
Lack of Delegation.
·
Low-cost airline aviation airline, Air Deccan
was treated as a step-child.
·
Unnecessary Burning of Fuel.
The major reason that
the brand was grounded was that it wasn’t just into one business and trying
hands on more than one business. The founder was taking care of different
businesses personally without appointing proper CEOs and couldn’t succeed in
doing so. And, it’s pretty obvious that if two brands serve almost the same
service, then people would rather prefer the cheaper one.
2) How Kodak couldn’t evolve with time and failed?
About
Kodak
The American technology company, Kodak,
was built on the culture of innovation and change in 1888. The company was
invented and marketed by George Eastmen who was a former bank clerk from
New York. At that time, it used to be a simple box camera, loaded with
100-exposure roll of film.
Kodak held a dominant position in
photographic film in its time. Its tagline “Kodak Moments” was so famous that it was used for
promoting events.
Marketing
Strategy of Kodak
The real genius of founder Eastman lied
in his marketing strategy. He launched an advertising campaign which featured
children and women operating the camera with a slogan, “You press the
button, we do the rest.”
·
In 1935, produced the first mass-market color
film in 16 and 8mm.
·
Kodak owned the film market with 90% market
share in 1970s.
·
Created the first digital camera in 1975.
How Kodak
Failed?
The first digital
camera was
designed by a Kodak engineer, Steve Sasson in 1975. It was a filmless
photography at that time so they didn’t want to threaten their film business so
didn’t do the marketing of the Digital camera. Whereas, other digital companies
like Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm took the full advantage of the situation.
Kodak missed the opportunities in the
technology, they themselves invented.
·
Kodak couldn’t get on the nerve of the modern
technology and remained in denial for long about digital photography while all
the other brands adapted the change by introducing electronic cameras.
·
Even before the digital photography they were
failing to keep up as its rivalry Fujifilm started doing a better job than
them.
1.
In January 2012, the big name went bankrupt
because of not making the smart move into the digital world fast enough.
2. On February 9, 2012, Kodak announced that it
will exit the digital image capture business.
What
Went Wrong?
The Kodak failed due its slowness in
transition. The world moved ahead with digital cameras, SD cards and USB cables
but the company remained stuck with films. They didn’t know how to respond in
time and technology eventually killed the Kodak films.
3)
How Nokia got acquired by Microsoft?
About Nokia
Nokia Corporation was founded in 1865 in Finland.
The company was formally known as Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT). The company
name was changed to Nokia in 1871. They built the first international mobile
phone in 1981 and this marked the beginning of the mobile era.
The
Rise of Nokia, Connecting People
·
Nokia phone was used in 1991 for making the
first GSM call.
·
In 1992, they launched Nokia 1101, the first
GSM handset which became an instant hit.
·
In 1988, Nokia became the world leader in
mobile phones.
Marketing
Strategy
·
Nokia’s Marketing share grew to 74% in March
2006 from 61.5%in October 2005.
·
In the color phone category, market share
jumped to 59.3% from 40.9%.
The
Fall of Nokia
Nokia used to own a large portion of
market of smartphone before the iPhone came out in market in 2007. Their
refusal to change and learn new things lost their survival and this ultimately
leaded to their demise.
It used to be the leader in its market
whereas Samsung was nowhere to be seen. But Samsung made the move at the right
time and gained the success.
What
Went Wrong?
The pioneer brand failed to respond to
the completely changed smartphones with full touchscreen and application-based
operating system. The years passed and they didn’t keep up with the expectation
of people and the consumers shifted.
They remained their focus on the Symbian
series. Until 2011, company didn’t make the leap of faith onto the Windows
phone and due to their slow response, they suffered such demise.
·
Nokia got acquired by Microsoft in 2013.
And as we conclude, we look forward to
the statement made by Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO in his speech when Nokia got
acquired by Microsoft that “we didn’t do
anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”.
And, as far as the parameters on which success is measured, he was right
somewhere that they didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just that they were unable
to adapt the change at the right time and so, lost.
The unwillingness to embrace the needed
marketing change when required was probably the main cause that turned these
brands down. One needs to think and act holistically for growing the brand with
time otherwise, if you don’t change, you will definitely get removed from
the competition.
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