Karen Post - Brand Turnaround: How Brands Gone Bad Returned to Glory and the 7 Game Changers That Made the Difference

BRAND TURNAROUND

HOW BRANDS GONE BAD RETURNED TO GLORY

and the Seven Game Changers That
MADE THE DIFFERENCE

KAREN POST

Copyright 2012 by Karen Post. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-177606-6
MHID: 0-07-177606-0

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To Denis Calabrese, Jill Griffin, Diana Marshall

My inspiring mentors and friends, without their wisdom and
support this book would not be here today

Part 1
Its a Brand New Game

Part 2
Seven Game Changers That Made the Difference

A humongous and heartfelt thank you to the following people who inspired me, shared their wisdom, provided unconditional support and continue to tolerate my intense work style and unconventional ways about me.

To start with, I owe special gratitude to the CNN business reporter who phoned me more than a year ago for comments on a brand that was recalling a lot of products for the third time. After chatting with her about the brand gone bad, and if it could bounce back, the lightbulb went off. The book was born. Gracias, Julianne Pepitone.

My literary muses, editors, agents, and my publisher, the McGraw-Hill team, there are not enough words to show my appreciation: Donya Dickerson, Julia Baxter, Ann Pryor, Daina Penikas, Cheryl Hudson, Scott Amerman, Suzanne Rapcavage, Stephen Ingle, Ellen Schneid Coleman, Seth Godin, Mary Cucci, Kathleen Rushall, and Bill Gladstone.

And my deep gratitude to a long list of others who made this book possible.

My fabulous assistant and marketing coordinator, Lauren Angrick, who earns her title everyday as Chief Problem Solver of my companies.

I couldnt have done it without my Sherlock researchers, who found the facts, stats, and evidence for the book: Abe Sauer, and Kate Hazelwood.

My top-notch design, video, and IT team were invaluable: Kristen Friend and Barry Wallace, Andrew Ortoski, Bryan Parnell, Christian Schwier, Eric Wallace, and Austin Learner.

My sounding boards, advisors, and business partners: Diana Marshall, Jill Griffin, Denis Calabrese, Alan Weiss, James Balasco, PhD, Nancy Walker, Ron Walker, Joy Galatro, Michael Arabia, Jayne Jewell, John Connery, Laura Van Wagner, Bruce Van Wagner, Tom Schwartz, Jocelyn Ring, Carl Ring, Annette Kuntz, Kay Toolson, Ron Stewart, Kit Stewart, Michael Stewart, Chris Stewart, John Turner, John Nepute, Richard Batenburg, John Omlor, Dennis Thomas, Dr. Rebecca White, Jess English and all my colleagues from the University of Tampa, John H. Sykes College of Business Entrepreneurship Center, the University of Tampa Boards of Fellows, and Linda Olson and WAVE colleagues who provided valuable feedback, ideas, and encouragement.

My family: Cathy, JJ, Krissy, my mom and my dad who support all of my projects with unconditional love and enthusiasm.

My very first clients, who believed in me 30 years ago and gave me an opportunity to cut my teeth and do great work: Jody Larriviere and Jimmy Gossen.

My recent clients who invited me to work with their organizations and who have provided me much inspiration: Albemarle and the Earthwise team, Duchossois Group, Liberty Diversified International, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Pizza Hut (IPHFHA), Society of International Travel Executives, American Intercontinental University, Pam Iorio, The Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria, International Speakers Bureau, Leading Authorities, Five Star Speakers and Trainers, Keppler Speakers, and Marlyn Paul at Alliance Science.

My global empowerment from across the pond, who exposed me to new perspectives and cultures: Joo Gomes DeBrito (Johnny) Morabazza, Gerri Smith, David Taylor, Nicole Armstrong, Baptiste Houlbreque, Yousef Attiah, Neta Nwosu, Paul Maduka Okoro, Martin Lindstrom, TO/Taiwo Obe.

My tennis buddies who keep me exercising and staying on my competitive game, when I wanted to drink wine.

You are about to learn some amazing, shocking, and sad tales about all kinds of brands. From dominant global brands to start-ups and nonprofits, from celebrities and professionals in all fields to entire countries, Ive worked with all kinds of brands and witnessed the rise and fall of many.

While the details are different, all brands strive for one universal goal: to be the brand of choice. Each brand wants to be loved, respected, sustainable, and bearing meaningful fruitprofits, fame, votes, or whatever represents achievementfor its stakeholders to enjoy. One might imagine that in todays world with its multimillion-dollar budgets, rooms full of MBAs, and 47 focus groups, brands would no longer stumble. Yet they do. Why? Among the myriad reasons: no budget, no experience, no formal education, bad choices and a slew of bad luck, decisions by committee, egos the size of Texas, underfunded programs, overspending on stuff that really does not matter, inability or unwillingness to change, moving too slowly, pulling the trigger too quickly, politics, focusing on the problem and not the solution, fear of taking risks, taking too many uncalculated risks, and so on. All these things are happening right now, somewhere, and they are either building and fueling or killing and disabling the growth of those brands.