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5 Lessons to Learn from Brand Mistakes in 2010

5 Lessons to Learn from Brand Mistakes in 2010

Unfortunately, a number of big brands made some big mistakes in 2010.  With each mistake that makes the news, there are things marketers and brand managers can learn and apply to their own initiatives.

Instead of focusing on the negatives of 2010, let’s take a look at five of the biggest lessons we can learn from some of the biggest mistakes brands made in 2010.  Keep in mind, the lessons to learn may or may not reflect the company’s actual response in each of the examples below.

1. BP

Who could forget the biggest environmental disaster in the United States during 2010 — the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The lesson to learn from BP’s mistake is this: be vigilant, move quickly, be honest, and ask for help.

2. Toyota

Toyota’s brand reputation had never been better until a series of recalls in 2010 tarnished it.  The lesson to learn from Toyota’s mistake is this: admit your mistakes and go above and beyond to fix them.

3. Facebook

Facebook continues to grow in popularity despite being called out numerous times for violating users’ privacy.  The lesson to learn from Facebook’s mistake is this: ignoring a problem and thinking you’re too big and great to care might work for a while, but it is not a strategy that will work in the long term.

4. Apple

Apple’s iPhone 4 was released with much buzz but problems ensued — something the brand hadn’t needed to contend with in the past.  The lesson to learn from Apple’s mistake is this: the good times can only last for so long and denial only makes those mistakes look bigger when stories travel across the Web so quickly these days.

5. Google

Google Buzz was touted as a new way to start conversations about the things people find interesting within Gmail, but it did not live up to the hype.  The lesson to learn from Google’s mistake is this: no matter how big you are, sometimes people like what they’re already using more than they might like you.  Your product has to be better because they won’t just switch for your name.

What do you think were some of the biggest lessons to learn from brand mistakes in 2010?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Corporate Eye Summary December 25, 2010

  • Catchwords of 2010 Include Brand Names
    Brand naming company Catchwords put together a visual representation of the catchwords that dominated American culture in 2010.  The company compiled the names and words that defined 2010 both positively and negatively and put them together in the graphic shown below.

    I’d be curious to learn how Catchword determined which words and phrases made it on […]


  • Important Technological Innovations for Enterprise
    Continuing our intermittent series of guest posts which I hope you’ll find interesting, we have a post from Joshua Bitton by Echosign about new technology’s significance to enterprise.
    If it seems like you can’t run a business nowadays without Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, or Google CEO Eric Schmidt breathing down your neck, well, it’s because you […]


  • 20 Must-Read Branding Articles of 2010
    2010 has nearly reached its end, so it seems to be an appropriate time for a 2010 branding recap. Following are links to 20 must-read branding articles that I published here on the Corporate Eye blog in 2010.  You can use the concepts, trends, and theories discussed in these articles as you develop your marketing […]


  • What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 32: Governance
    It’s hard to know where the boundary of investor relations activities ends and that of corporate governance starts up. Many of the things each area is concerned with tend to overlap. It is the investors (shareholders) who vote upon management that runs the company and major decisions such as mergers and changes to a company’s […]


  • Corporate Eye Summary December 18, 2010
    JCPenney’s Becomes First Retailer to Open Complete Store on Facebook
    This week marked the start of what will undoubtedly become a new marketing distribution trend when retailer JCPenney opened a complete store within Facebook.  For Facebook users who are accustomed to communicating with friends and publishing and sharing content, they can now browse and buy clothes, […]


Important Technological Innovations for Enterprise

Continuing our intermittent series of guest posts which I hope you’ll find interesting, we have a post from Joshua Bitton by Echosign about new technology’s significance to enterprise.

If it seems like you can’t run a business nowadays without Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, or Google CEO Eric Schmidt breathing down your neck, well, it’s because you can’t. Hi-tech companies are paving the way for industry (technological or otherwise) and businesses that ignore innovations in the field — ‘trendy’-seeming or not — risk falling behind in the silver age of exploration.

Here are some recent, valuable inventions in the world of technology that will help large and small companies alike remain robust and competitive:

social media optimisation

Social Media

Contrary to popular belief, social networking sites aren’t just for pre-teens with internet-sized axes to grind, and fledgling entrepreneurs ignore them at their own peril: according to a Nielsen study conducted in January, usage of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) increased 82% from December 2008 to 2009, and overall traffic has increased dramatically over the last three years. Facebook was the top contender, and on July 21, 2010, reported a staggering 500 million registered users.

The overwhelming popularity of social media has led some prominent companies to adopt a ‘social strategy’ as a crucial part of their marketing apparatus, and, in some cases, consider it a wholesale replacement for traditional means. Executives and business analysts maintain that social media promotes a new, more meaningful level of interaction and conversation with customers, as well as new heights of collaboration and trust among employees. And a genuine concern for customer wants and needs — combined with a killer social strategy — can even turn consumers into willing marketing allies. As John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka, quips: “If content is king, conversation is queen.”

iphones

Mobile and Other Consumer Electronics Apps

We declare this the age of the iPhone. It seems that we do anything but gab on our phones these days, using them instead to shop, order takeout, take photos and video, or even deposit checks into our bank accounts. E-mail and calendaring remain the most common uses of mobile apps, but users increasingly want more — and developers are stepping it up accordingly. And while mobile electronics still control the ‘app market,’ as it were, more and more consumer electronic devices will begin to support them out of sheer business necessity.

Expect more machine-to-machine communication in the near future, as well: with innovations like Boxee ( where users can send films, television shows, and random video clips from the internet to their in-home television sets) gaining in popularity, app development can only increase exponentially.

cloud-computing

Cloud Computing and Software as a Service

Cloud computing — it sounds a bit spaced out, right? It’s really a way to use software ‘on demand’ so as to prevent the fallout that inevitably occurs when buying software that quickly becomes outdated. Instead, companies can pay a subscription online to use the software service, preventing them from having to drastically change their infrastructure once a software package is uploaded. Service providers benefit, also, by significantly reducing the amount of overhead (i.e., money spent on advertising.)

electricity-grid

Zero-Emission Technology and Smart Grids

In 2010, ‘Going green’ is more than a White House administration buzzword — it’s an already-developing multi-million dollar enterprise. In this age, hi-tech companies worth their salt invest in ‘smart grids,’ the faster, cheaper, more efficient cousin to the woolly mammoth of an electricity grid on which the United States not-so-comfortably houses itself.

According to the MIT Technology Review, “Reducing the need for these reserves will mean that fewer power plants have to be built to keep up with increases in demand for electricity, saving $100 billion in construction costs and curbing future greenhouse-gas emissions. Emissions can also be reduced by replacing fossil-fuel plants with zero-emission technologies, such as solar and wind farms.”

Our large energy reserves are costly, unwieldy, and prone to power failure, but new solutions are on the way. The creation of a ‘network of sensors’ will allow operators to locate and identify potential problems in real time, with automated controls. The new grid could even eventually accommodate hybrid and electric cars. More green, less cost. Sounds perfect.

About the Author: Joshua Bitton is a freelance writer for EchoSign. EchoSign is the leader of the 2nd generation of electronic signature solutions – 100% web-based, fully digital signature solutions that do not require electronic signature pads, digital certificates or scanning software. With EchoSign, there is nothing to install or learn.

Images source: wikimedia

Corporate Eye Summary December 18, 2010

  • JCPenney’s Becomes First Retailer to Open Complete Store on Facebook
    This week marked the start of what will undoubtedly become a new marketing distribution trend when retailer JCPenney opened a complete store within Facebook.  For Facebook users who are accustomed to communicating with friends and publishing and sharing content, they can now browse and buy clothes, shoes, and any other product available through the JCPenney […]


  • 10 Brand Stories that Made Headlines in 2010
    2010 was a year dictated by struggling economies and a proliferation of information via the social Web that brands were forced to recognize and respond to.  It was also a year of some brands demise, some brands repositioning, and some brands survival against the odds.  Following are reminders of 10 brand stories that got people […]


  • 10 Ideal Gifts for Corporate Communicators
    Suppose you had to buy a present for a corporate communicator; what would you choose?
    I know what I’d like, so here are some ideas for your own favourite corporate communicator; but I’d love to hear your suggestions – big or small!
    1. For writing
    We all have our favourite writing tools, and there is something special about […]


  • Corporate Eye Summary December 11, 2010
    Honda’s Naughty or Nice Facebook App Tracks Behavior with a Fun Hook
    I have to hand it to Honda for coming up with a Facebook app that can be perceived by consumers as fun, entertaining, and humorous, but could be working hard behind the scenes to tell Honda’s marketing team so much more than whether a […]


  • Brands Adopt the Pantone Color of the Year for 2011
    Each year, Pantone names a new color of the year.  In 2010, turquoise won the honor.  The 2011 Pantone color of the year has been announced and it’s honeysuckle.  It’s a reddish-pink color designated as PMS 18-2120.
    The Pantone color of the year is typically associated with the fashion and home categories, but it’s not unusual […]


JCPenney’s Becomes First Retailer to Open Complete Store on Facebook

This week marked the start of what will undoubtedly become a new marketing distribution trend when retailer JCPenney opened a complete store within Facebook.  For Facebook users who are accustomed to communicating with friends and publishing and sharing content, they can now browse and buy clothes, shoes, and any other product available through the JCPenney catalog without leaving Facebook. That’s 250,000 products at users’ fingertips.

jcpenney-facebook-store

You can expect this type of store front within Facebook to quickly grow in popularity from retailers’ perspectives.  JCPenney isn’t the first retailer to provide a working store front within Facebook, but by offering a quarter million products, JCPenney is the largest by far.  The company expects Facebook users to visit the store, which is accessible through a tab on the JCPenney Facebook Page, when they come across product mentions within their friends’ updates.  A simple click brings them directly to the page where they can easily make their own purchase.

Fast Company reported the story this week saying:

“J.C. Penney expects that the new channel will give it more information about its customers, which could influence future marketing and product choices. ‘All of the information that Facebook has about people can be aggregated into analytical data,’ Jason Taylor [vice president of global product strategy for Usablenet, which built the Facebook operation for J.C. Penney] said. That includes the ages of their customers, what sorts of products they share with others, and how often they peruse the store’s offerings. ‘The interesting additional information they’re going to get could affect their decision-making,’ Taylor adds.”

On the flip side, the consumer perspective related to shopping via Facebook might present some challenges.  Many social network users, particularly Facebook users, are concerned about the security of the private data they share.  Facebook has been the subject of scrutiny frequently over the past couple of years for this very issue.  There is undoubtedly a portion of Facebook users who will not be comfortable providing credit card or other financial information through the site in order to make a purchase from JCPenney or another retailer.  That’s an issue that David Kiefaber of BrandFreak brought up in his own post about the new JCPenney store on Facebook, and it’s a valid point.

What do you think of branded stores on Facebook?  Is offering shopping via social networking sites where consumers already spend time the next logical step for retail brands or is it like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts on this marketing trend.

Corporate Eye Summary December 11, 2010

  • Honda’s Naughty or Nice Facebook App Tracks Behavior with a Fun Hook
    I have to hand it to Honda for coming up with a Facebook app that can be perceived by consumers as fun, entertaining, and humorous, but could be working hard behind the scenes to tell Honda’s marketing team so much more than whether a user has been naughty or nice this year.
    To use the Honday […]


  • Green Advertising : Top Five Traps To Avoid 2/2
    This is Part 2 of the Green Advertising : Feeling The Pressure post a few weeks ago.  Apologies if you’ve been on tenterhooks waiting for it!
    The concept of Greenwashing has been around, it seems, for ages.  The trouble is, with the public, NGOs and various other bodies keeping a sharp look out, a company can […]


  • Ad Spending Forecasts Highlight China and the Internet
    This week, ZenithOptimedia released its “Adspend Forecast Update” for December 2010 and one type of advertising and one region of the world drew attention as the focus of opportunity for the future.  In other words, companies are shifting budgets and investing more money into the large-scale opportunity of China and the lost-cost and wide-reach of […]


  • A Rabbit Warren of Brazilian Banking CSR
    Management & Excellence is what I can only describe as an intriguing and unique company.  Their website describes them as:
    a research and rating company in the areas of ethics, sustainability, corporate governance, transparency and corporate social responsibility (CSR) specialized in Latin America, Spain and the oil industry worldwide
    The company recently released the results […]


  • Corporate Eye Summary December 4, 2010
    What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 31: Annual General Meetings
    Companies are of two minds about Annual General Meetings of Shareholders; some view them as a necessary evil to be dispensed with as quickly and with as little fanfare as possible; others see it as an opportunity to reach out to their owners […]