New Products Fail When Their Brand Stories Don’t Make Sense

December 15, 2017

Every brand has a story… and every story should support the brand. Branding and storytelling go hand in hand.

The new “Museum of Failure” (real name — I kid you not) just opened a traveling show in downtown Los Angeles.

Consumer product failures are among the top flops highlighted by the museum. Two doozies in the collection stand out:

• Frozen dinners from Colgate, the toothpaste maker; and
• Perfume from Harley-Davidson, the motor company

In these cases the products failed because the stories about them failed to compel customers. Frankly, the stories just didn’t make sense… there was no authentic accounting for them. TV dinners from a toothpaste manufacturer? Perfume for the biker set?

It’s no wonder the products failed.

-Cary Brazeman