Damaged brand positioning
Question: We were glad to see that last Friday you returned to the subject of positioning. We’re not that well-known but we’re a local herbal supplement brand. Even four years after we closed, we have had followers who call us to ask if we’ve come back. Those calls have steadily become fewer and fewer.
I asked those who gave up coming (at least those whose names were on our database) how they felt about our closing. Those who consented to comment said that they heard about the “family feud” in our family corporation that led to the closure. A few said “it’s a pity.” Most were frank enough to say “if you guys can’t manage your family, what more with your family business and brand.”
This was what convinced us to believe that our brand has been damaged and so has its positioning.
On this fifth year since our closing, the three of us brothers have reconciled and agreed that in honor of our late father who founded the business and who invented the herbal supplement, we should come back. One of the issues we’ve been debating is whether to come back with the same brand and positioning or be under another brand and positioning. For more than two weeks now, we’re far from agreeing. We’ve been your loyal column readers. So please help us with your diagnosis and prescription.
ANSWER: You should start by distinguishing between brand positioning and brand equity. Brand positioning is about how your product is satisfying a priority consumer value better than competition. Brand equity is about your brand’s ownership (i.e., equity) of that consumer value or the consumer segment where your brand participates. The ideal of course is for your brand to own both the consumer value and the consumer segment. An example is J&J or the Johnson brand. It owns the consumer or the mother’s value of baby care and the baby market segment.
Brand equity comes after a succession of effective brand positioning campaigns. What you’re concerned with is more about brand equity than with brand positioning. So the first question you should be asking yourself about your supposedly “damaged” brand equity is this: “Does my brand already own a consumer value and/or a consumer market segment?” In other words, are you the J&J of herbal supplements? If your answer is more “no” than “yes,” then you have nothing to worry about. You still have no brand equity to speak of. What you don’t own cannot be damaged.
But you may ask: “What about those consumers of ours who up to four years after our business closed were still after our brand?” That’s a segment or a market niche. The herbal supplement value they’ve obviously attached to your brand seems like it’s owned by your brand.
Since we’re talking about the J&J brand, let’s see if there was a time when the Johnson brand was damaged. Since the Johnson brand is still around and thriving, let’s see how the damage was managed to effectively lead to a successful brand comeback. This case should provide you with the lesson you’re looking for to answer your question.
J&J learned in the last day of September 1982 about product tampering via cyanide lacing of its Tylenol capsules. Seven people already died after taking the laced Tylenol capsules. McNeil Inc. manufactured Tylenol but J&J owned McNeil.
Initial investigations revealed few facts. It was known that the poisoning was restricted to the Chicago area. But who did the tampering, why, and how many more cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules were in drugstores were all a mystery. But J&J, through its CEO Jim Burke, acted quickly. On Oct. 6, J&J announced a nationwide product recall for Tylenol. It was an unprecedented move. In all previous product recalls, it was the government who ordered it. This time, it was the company itself who did it.
What about the brand and its future? On Oct. 8, 1982, The Wall Street Journal observed: “As time passes without a suspect being caught or a motive for the seemingly random killings assigned, damage to the Tylenol name is mounting.” In fact, Jerry Della Fermina, a popular advertising man at that time, predicted: “A year from now, it’s going to be very difficult to find any product with the name Tylenot on it.”
So what happened?
J&J persisted and just went further. It developed a triple-safety-sealed package. This was three times the protection that the FDA mandated. And Burke made it known that the new packaging cost would not be passed on to the consumers. J&J would absorb it.
To prepare for the relaunching of Tylenol, Burke announced that J&J would run ads offering consumers a $2.50 coupon to replace any Tylenol product they might have discarded. Anyone can take advantage of this offer without the need to show proof of prior purchase.
In the relaunch, Burke appeared on closed-circuit TV to say that the packaging and coupon were J&J’s “response to our loyal consumers who have given us their trust.” Toward the end of November, A.C. Nielsen reported that Tylenol recaptured 55 percent of its pre-cyanide lacing business. The Wall Street Journal called the regained market share “a marketing miracle.”
What then is the lesson here for you? First, what should you not do? Do not go into denial. You had an episode of “family feud.” Admit it and apologize for it. Then, as with J&J, act positive and live the “marketing concept.” Do marketing from where your loyal consumers are and not from where you are as the marketer. Find out what your consumers see in your brand that they do not find in others, and let your brand embody that. If that happens to be in your positioning of five years ago, then continue. If it’s all different now, then redevelop and reposition your brand accordingly.
Keep your questions coming. Send them to me at [email protected].
