Brand Failures: The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time [Hardcover]

"Anyone with a professional interest or involvement in brand management should read this book." Anthony Di Benedetto, Professor of Marketing, Temple University, Journal of Consumer Marketing 'You learn more from failure than you can from success. Matt Haig's new book is a goldmine of helpful how-not-to advice which you ignore at your own peril.' LAURA RIES, President, Ries & Ries, marketing strategists, and bestselling co-author of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding 'I thought the book was terrific. Brings together the business lessons from all the infamous brand disasters from the Ford Edsel and New Coke to today's Andersen and Enron. A must-buy for marketers.' PETER DOYLE, Professor of Marketing & Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick 'If you are responsible for your brand, read this book. It might just be the best investment that you will ever make!' SHAUN SMITH, Senior Vice President of Forum, a division of FT Knowledge, and author of Uncommon Practice 'Every marketer will read this with both pleasure and profit. Some of the stories are really enjoyable but the lessons are deadly serious. Read it, enjoy it, learn from it.' PATRICK BARWISE, Professor of Management and Marketing, London Business School 'I highly recommend his book to everyone responsible for brand creation, development and management.' DR PAUL TEMPORAL, Brand Strategy Consultant, Singapore (www.brandingasia.com) and author of Advanced Brand Management 'makes entertaining reading, but its message is serious and provides a valuable checklist of lessons learned.' Marketing 'Splendid advice' The Daily Focus (Korea) 'Read it' Sports Today (Korea)

'From yoghurt shampoo to ThirstyCat bottled water, some brands were just never going to make it. Matt Haig names and shames.'

'Matt Haig's new book is a goldmine of helpful how-not-to advice which you ignore at your own peril.'

'I thought the book was terrific. A must-buy for marketers.'

A tour of Matt Haig's fascinating hall of failure will alert you to potential dangers and show you how to ensure a long, healthy life for your brand.

"The gripping and entertaining inside story of 100 major brand blunders"

'Brand Failures is an entertaining and useful read'

"Illuminating and amusing"

"Informative and entertaining"

Praise and Reviews

`You learn more from failure than you can from success. Matt Haig`s new book is a goldmine of helpful how-not-to advice which you ignore at your own peril.`

LAURA RIES, President, Ries & Ries, marketing strategists, and bestselling co-author of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

`I thought the book was terrific. Brings together the business lessons from all the infamous brand disasters from the Ford Edsel and New Coke to today's Andersen and Enron. A must-buy for marketers.`

PETER DOYLE, Professor of Marketing & Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

`If you are responsible for your brand, read this book. It might just be the best investment that you will ever make!`

SHAUN SMITH, Senior Vice President of Forum, a division of FT Knowledge, and author of Uncommon Practice

`Every marketer will read this with both pleasure and profit. Some of the stories are really enjoyable but the lessons are deadly serious. Read it, enjoy it, learn from it.`

PATRICK BARWISE, Professor of Management and Marketing, London Business School

`I highly recommend his book to everyone responsible for brand creation, development and management.`

DR PAUL TEMPORAL, Brand Strategy Consultant, Singapore (www.brandingasia.com) and author of Advanced Brand Management

`makes entertaining reading, but its message is serious and provides a valuable checklist of lessons learned.`

MARKETING, April 2003

`Splendid advice`

THE DAILY FOCUS (Korea)

`Read it`

SPORTS TODAY (Korea)

What do Coca-Cola, McDonalds, IBM, Microsoft and Virgin have in common? Yes, they are all global giants striding successfully across the world, but what they are less recognized for are all those branded products they've launched that have bombed -spectacularly and at great cost.

Brand Failures is a riveting look at how such disasters occur. For the first time we're given the inside story of 100 major brand blunders that make for jaw-dropping reading. Matt Haig approaches his subject in a truly entertaining style - yes, this is a business book that is actually fun to read! But his message is deadly serious.

He describes those brands that have set sail with the help of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns only to sink without trace. He also looks at acknowledged brand mistakes made by successful blue-chip companies and some lesser-known but hilarious bombshells. He reveals what went wrong in every case and provides for each a valuable checklist of lessons learnt, categorized as:

classic failures;

idea failures;

extension failures;

PR failures;

culture failures;

people failures;

rebranding failures;

Internet and new technology failures;

tired brands.

Companies live or die on the strength of their brand, and failure can be fatal. Don't let yours be consigned to the brand graveyard. A tour of Matt Haig's fascinating hall of failure will alert you to potential dangers and show you how to ensure a long, healthy life for your brand.

Matt Haig

Matt Haig is an independent consultant advising organizations of all types and sizes on creating integrated marketing and branding solutions. As one of the very first writers on e-business, Matt has always been at the forefront of developing leading edge marketing solutions.

More recently he has carried out mobile marketing consultancy for several companies and has researched and written extensively on the subject. Its rapidly growing popularity inspired him to write his popular book Mobile Marketing: The message revolution.

Acclaimed for his no-nonsense pragmatic style, Matt is a popular speaker and writes regularly for the national and business press. He is also the author of several other best-selling guides including E-PR: The essential guide to public relations on the Internet, E-Business Essentials, E-Mail Essentials, The E-Marketing Handbook, The B2B E-Commerce Handbook and If You're So Brilliant... How Come You Don't Have an E-strategy?: The essential guide to e-business (all Kogan Page).