Babies & bathwater
Surely any discussion of starting a new job merits mention of babies and bathwater.
Some of the biggest slip-ups in marketing history have been committed by people who probably didn’t try hard enough to understand what was working about the brand or company they were responsible for.
Take Snapple. Launched in 1972. Sold by a small independent to Quaker Oats Corp in 1994 for US$1.7bn. Sold 3 years later to Triarc for US$300m.
There’s been a lot of commentary on this business catastrophe, but the consensus is that increased competition made Quaker rethink the brand’s successful niche strategy – targeting urban youth with a counterculture, anti-big business pitch - and throw out key aspects of the brand’s equity such as Howard Stern and Wendy the Snapple Lady. Triarc reinstated Howard and Wendy, refound the magic and in the next 3 years almost regained all the lost ground, selling it on to Cadbury Schweppes for US$1.45bn.
So, when you start a new role, don’t forget to
- find some people who you respect and have been around a while
- work with them to drill down into what has driven historical business success (even if you have to go back a while to find success)
- try to find data to substantiate the hypotheses where necessary
- decide whether these drivers of success can help the brand or business win going forward
Editor
