Oftentimes campaigns are conceived with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the way to success the results drastically veer in an unwanted direction. This undesirable course could be as obvious as an uproar in customer disapproval to as subtle as a brand slowly watering itself down to a much lesser version of its original strategic foundation. But, in many cases, a loss of brand equity is completely avoidable – we can learn from key case studies of where failure quickly arises after initial success, and develop a process for considering all contingencies. Written for Off Madison Ave, February 2012.

1. Avoid setting attainable, yet shortsighted goals that
ultimately yield a poor long-term return on investment.
by Jessica Carlson
Chris Hall, Lauren Abbott
Christine Olivas and
Stephanie Sparer
SUSTAINABLE
SUCCESS
F Y I
,

2. THERE’S
A COMMON
ADAGEin the advertising
industry that half of a brand’s budget is wasted,
but there’s just no telling which half. While
tracking and analytics are improving exponentially
each passing day, there are certain factors that
are slightly more intangible that can contribute
to both success and failure in marketing
campaigns. Looking at shortsighted goals and
well-intentioned, yet haphazard initiatives can
provide key insights into how to ensure long-term
and reoccurring success in your brand’s efforts.
Viewing campaigns through a more meticulous
and analytical lens will inevitably create a more
cohesive brand experience and perception over
time, translating to better brand vitality, higher
value perceptions, stronger emotional connections,
greater profitability and expanded market share.
Not to be confused with simply ensuring that design
standards are followed and content matches a
broad description of tone, companies need to truly
consider the clear and distinct perceptions (e.g.
pragmatically inventive experts as opposed to just
innovative) that are going to be developed based
on their efforts.
In creating a concrete brand plan, companies can
charge a price premium over their competitive set
and garner heightened repeat purchases, which
will ultimately lead to better financial performance.
Those who take this thoughtfully analytical
approach and maintain a universal objective of
building a brand in all efforts have proven that the
outcome lends itself to significant success. Case
and point: in 2010, the companies listed in the
BrandZ Top 100, a valuation that takes customers’
opinions on brands into account, saw 40 percent
growth over five years; thus, proving that strong
brands outperformed in the stock market and
could also remain resilient during a recession.
As marketers are responsible for building a brand
progressively with each campaign launched,
past advertising efforts and marketing and sales
initiatives can demonstrate how even large brands
can stumble in the perceptions they craft, all due
to a focus on ill-advised goals. From analyzing a
Sears sales goal, for example, that incited unethical
behavior to a too avant-garde ad campaign that
ultimately lead to the utter demise of a large tech
brand, Off Madison Ave will explore how your
brand can take concrete steps to ensure future
campaigns won’t produce the same missteps, but
instead will yield both immediate and persistent
results.
1
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3. “Ma’am, the noise you were worried about… It turns out your
husband was right in thinking there was an issue with the carburetor.
But, we’ve also discovered your brakes are almost shot and you
desperately need new wheel bearings,” Dean explains as Mrs.
Boyer reaches for her phone to call her husband.
Five rings later, she gets his voicemail. A couple more attempts
and she’s starting to feel bad, as if she’s blatantly telling Dean she
doesn’t trust him. She walks up to the counter, concedes and signs
the service quote and agreement as she consciously subtracts
hundreds of dollars from the family bank account.
Behind the scenes, at the Sears corporate office, sales executives
were watching their numbers steadily incline. To their delight,
many of the automotive mechanics were reaching the sales goal of
$147 per hour that they had been given. While the goal may have
intended to increase the speed of the repairs, the actual outcome
was that employees would overcharge for the services rendered or
they would end up fixing things that weren’t in need of repair.
Mrs. Boyer’s case fell under the latter – she wasn’t in dire need of
new brakes or wheel bearings – Dean was simply selling her on a
service she’d only need in the far future, just so he could make the
sales goals the corporate offices set for him.
When she returned home and told her husband of the day’s
happenings, he was furious. He knew his wife had been taken
advantage of and his family was out quite a bit of money and they
surely could have used elsewhere. Mr. Boyer called Sears the very
next day and complained to the manager, but the damage was
already done – the charges had gone through, the trust was broken
and nothing could salvage the relationship between the Boyers and
the professionals at the Sears Service Center. And, with a name
attached to so many other consumer goods, you can be assured
that the Boyers wouldn’t be going out of their way to pick up a new
backpack for their son or a new drill bit for the toolkit at Sears.
While increasing sales seemed a sound objective, the goals set
caused the Sears service center employees to resort to immoral
measures. In doing this, the brand quickly eroded the trust it had
built with its customers and armed them with a detrimental negative
story to spread.
2
IN NEED
OF REPAIR
Goals motivate the automotive
mechanics, but ultimately
it causes clientele to sever
relationships with Sears.
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4. A little over a year ago, the java bean behemoth announced
they would enact a new process that required their baristas
to only make one drink at a time. Touting it would up
quality, taste and temperature, even those at the front lines
grumbled about lengthier waits and wasted time. From a
business standpoint, Starbucks’ reasons for doing so were
two-fold: (1) significantly reduce errors in custom-made
drinks, allowing the brand to reduce the amount of product
it wasted, and (2) reestablish the brand’s coffeehouse roots
by disassembling the perception of their existing assembly
line approach to crafting custom coffee drinks.
Action of Intention
But, that wasn’t the outcome. Just as Starbucks baristas
warned, the new procedures increased lines at the registers
and wait times at the pick-up counters. And, even though
there were surely less mistakes, when a drink order was
wrong, it’s more than likely that customers would be even
more upset after waiting for a significantly increased amount
of time.
While the brand wanted to get back to its coffeehouse roots,
many customers had become accustomed to the quick turn-
around in grabbing their cup of Joe on their way to work or
during a quick break in between to-do’s. Furthermore, many
of its locations had been constructed to accommodate quick
stops, with less comfortable seating than its original retail
design and, of course, adding the drive-thru windows, only
added to the perception of the brand becoming a fast-food-
style Frappuccino-maker. When peeling back the layers,
it becomes apparent that, if their aim was truly to change
perceptions, they attempted to do so in the cheapest,
fastest manner.
3
COFFEE
BREAKS
With their sights set on
quality and rekindling
coffeehouse perceptions,
Starbucks customers are
left watching the clock.
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5. F Y I
ACTION OF INTENTION
4
+ + +
IN THEORY,
make one drink
at a time
steam milk for one drink at
a time, rinse after each use
one espresso machine
barista stands in one
place at expresso bar
IN REALITY,
= + longer lineslonger wait
+not meeting customers
exspectations
+= +less returned drinks
due to less errors
quality of taste,
temperature and
appearance
“coffe house” perception
with the reduction of an
assembly line
Just like what we’ve seen on the operations level of Sears and Starbucks, we’ve seen numerous marketing
initiatives that create negative brand experiences despite having an approach that’s rooted in a very
pragmatic and sound goal or objective.
4

6. In launching a new product or an updated version amidst
several competitors with similar offerings, it’s obvious
that it is critical your brand stands out and differentiates
itself amongst a cluttered market. However, in setting an
objective around an arbitrary differentiator, your brand
can either quickly become the brunt of negative social
media fodder or be rapidly forgotten. While some may
argue the former is much more desirable, because, after
all, it does get people talking, Palm Pre offers a cautionary
tale for chasing buzz in a shortsighted manner.
The campaign revolved around a soft-spoken woman
telling slightly incoherent and wildly irrelevant stories
while briefly using the device. Coming up against heavy-
hitters, such as iPhone and Blackberry, Palm Pre had to
quickly establish its brand and differentiate itself from
its competitors. The brand’s campaign sought to get
people talking about the product as a means to increase
awareness as well as humanize the smartphone, similar
to how Apple gave a persona to one of their products with
their “I’m a Mac” campaign. In looking at the competitors
with the most market share, both Apple and RIM took
an approach that focused on the product’s benefits. The
iPhone campaign concentrated heavily on the product’s
functionality and Blackberry promoted the product’s
technological integration into a user’s everyday life under
the slogan, “Your life on a Blackberry.”
While the Palm Pre ads were often referred to as creepy
and machine-like, the campaign was initially touted as
a success, as results indicated that the campaign had
achieved its core objective to develop buzz around the
product. Furthermore, people’s strong reactions to the
campaign generated an astounding 216,000 blog posts
and 6,520 forum discussion threads, as well as hundreds
of videos that provided commentary related to the ads.
In standing out amongst its competitors, Palm was able
to essentially steal share of voice within social media
from Blackberry, rising from a 10 to a 15 on YouGov’s
Brand Index buzz scale, whereas Blackberry took a dip
from 30 to 25 during the same time period.
5
TAKE
PRECAUTION
While awareness and product-focused
chatter are all preambles to success,
unfocused and irrelevant storytelling
prevents a triumph.
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7. In hindsight, taking a closer look at the goals of the campaign
and its outcomes, it becomes clear that despite initial on-point
results, the campaign had detrimental long-term effects on the
brand and contributed to its demise.
Concentrating on increasing chatter around the new product,
the underlying – or blatant – tone of the tweets, blog posts
and YouTube videos were fundamentally negative and relayed
consumers’ dislike of the approach. The campaign’s own
creative director, Gary Koepke, suggested that he anticipated the
undesirable mentions, as he said, “The Pre is probably being
talked about more than other phones right now because of the
marketing and advertising, and that’s a good thing. Could the
ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes,
but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not
shout at them and tell an interesting story.” While there are many
campaigns that attempt to divide consumers into two divergent
groups as it relates to their brand, the campaign focuses on
differentiating itself so much so that it reaches the point of
being way too different, alienating most smartphone-desiring
consumers.
Speaking of differentiating, the Palm Pre campaign was unable
to compete when it came to consumers’ intent to purchase.
During that time period, the brand’s perceived value wavered
at a range of 3 to 5, whereas Blackberry held steady at a score
of 20 on YouGov’s Brand Index value scale, which rendered
the brand as the top competitor in the market when looking
at value perceptions. With the main emphasis being on the
irrelevant storytelling, it’s assumed that consumers were already
disinterested in the brand by the time the short product-focused
segment of the spot aired at the very end. In concentrating too
heavily on the wrong messaging strategy, it’s no surprise that
consumers weren’t able to see the value in the product.
As perceptions of the brand shifted to negative responses, sales
also altered their course. During the launch of the campaign,
they were selling 50,000 Palm Pre phones per week, but one
month later those figures reduced by half. We see that prior to
most perceptions being formed – when the buzz around the
campaign was just starting – the brand had a fighting chance.
But, once the Internet and real-world population came to the
6
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A PRECARIOUS
CAMPAIGN

8. resounding conclusion the phone should not be bought due to
the ad campaign, consumers were easily swayed to follow suit
and sales concurrently declined.
Airing such a campaign when the brand was already in a
financially unstable position ended up being Palm’s downfall.
Being in their position, taking a safe-bet approach wasn’t going
to move the needle and an attention-grabbing campaign was
required. But, together, the brand and the agency took a risk
that could have easily been avoided with more thoughtful
consideration around what kind of buzz they wanted to build.
Unfortunately, the brand didn’t get a second chance to redeem
itself, as the launch of the product was a flop and the company
went bankrupt in 2010, shortly after Apple had its most profitable
quarter to date.
7
“Those creepy palm
pre commercials make
me NOT want to buy it”
- @maggieallyse
“Palm Pre commercial
-- annoying, creepy or
annoying and creepy?” -
@hardheadedwoman
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A PRECEDENT
FOR FAILURE

9. 8
A COMMON MISGUIDANCE
Whether rushed or ill-conceived, the industry offers a word to the wise in many
past campaigns that offered short-term success but led to long-term failure.
“Join ASPCA” “Save the Money” “Molson Hunts for College Drunks”
• Awareness of mission
• Awareness of the plight
of homeless animals
• Donations
• Awareness of
SaveTheMoney.org and
Groupon’s charitable
giving
• Awareness and support
of the organizations
Groupon backs
• Popularity of the beer
on American college
campuses
• Recommendations
of the brand through
social media
engagement
The ASPCA had seen significant
growth in revenue and program
spending since the launch of the
Sarah McLachlan campaign in
2003. Fundraising revenues had
doubled while the fundraising ratio
had remained constant (with $.20
required to raise $1.00).
Within minutes of the ad airing in
the Super Bowl spot, it generated
buzz across thousands of Twitter
and Facebook users. Renowned
bloggers and industry leaders sharing
thoughts on the campaign only added
to the booming chatter around the
brand. According to stats released by
TweetReach, the brand was mentioned
in more than 22,000 tweets.
With an incentive to win a trip
to Cancun with their friends,
university students quickly began
snapping and uploading their
craziest party pictures. With a
secondary objective of highlighting
the biggest party school, the
photos were also associated with
universities’ names.
There was a lot of negative backlash
against the campaign, even from self-
proclaimed animal lovers and shelter
supporters. Many stated that the
commercial was so sad or depressing
that it made them not want to think
about animals’ suffering or take action
to improve their welfare. Media
parodies poked fun at the campaign,
such as depicting people being
bummed out by the commercial. The
creation of a negative association
with the organization or the idea
that having a good time and helping
animals is incompatible may have
deterred many additional individuals
from supporting the brand and its
mission.
An analysis of the sentiment of
those 22,000 tweets showed that
the response was mostly negative.
The ads were called everything from
offensive and crass to downright
tasteless. Some publications even
dubbed the Tibet commercial the
night’s biggest loser. Customers
who were outraged took to the
blogosphere and complained on
Groupon’s blog, threatening to stop
subscribing to the company’s emails.
Initially, Groupon defended the
commercials; however, within days it
gave way to the uproar and pulled all
the ads.
While Canada’s drinking age in
many providences is 19 years old,
the campaign targeted all U.S.
university students. This lead to
the submissions of drunk party
pictures from many under-age
students. Secondarily, the colleges
highlighted in the pictures weren’t
too thrilled with the images that were
now associated with their names.
With universities calling Molson
out for promoting excessive and
irresponsible drinking and parents
registering complaints with the
company, the promotion ended early.
CAMPAIGNGOALSINITIALSUCCESSLONG-TERMFAILURE
INCREASED
INCREASED
INCREASED
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10. 9
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We’ve seen that these campaigns and initiatives have yielded
beneficial results over a short duration of time, but executives
aren’t chasing a one-week boost in sales for their efforts to
only fall flat afterwards, they’re pursuing a long-lasting return
on their investment. From rushed campaigns to unconsidered
contingencies, there are several key things to watch for to
mitigate any shortsightedness in marketing efforts.
Ethical Implications
Sure, some joke that “business ethics” is an oxymoron, but
as the Sears example points out, how things could become
morally misconstrued should be considered in setting key
objectives both operationally and at the campaign level.
How could things go ethically awry at the campaign level?
As the ASPCA and Groupon examples in the chart on page
8 suggest, the brand’s principles can come into question
when consumers’ perceptions are that the company is
attempting to toy too heavily with emotions or make light of a
serious situation.
Moving Too Fast
Just like a 40-mph-over-the-speed-limit car can quickly spin
out of control, the breakdown will often occur when campaigns
move too fast. In a perfect world, campaigns with arbitrary,
fast-approaching deadlines would quickly receive the ax. In
rushing efforts, they’re likely to not be well thought-out, and
therefore much less effective and more damaging. But, that’s
not always the case. In that, it’s important to be okay with
tweaking a campaign’s direction in mid-stride after the involved
team is able to consider contingencies or being comfortable in
acknowledging that failure is a very real possibility.
Even with timelines rarely ever becoming public knowledge,
prime examples of this largely relate to product launches.
A prime example is the Honda Asimo, which needed vast
improvements in the gracefulness department before meeting
the market’s expectations of what a robot could do, and
therefore fell flat on its mechanical face. (Literally. It was rather
clumsy.)
Essentially, sometimes you need to slow down in order to keep
up – need we remind you of the fable of the tortoise and the hare?
AVOIDING A
VICIOUS
CYCLE OF
SHORT-TERM
SUCCESSES
From following gut instincts to a
big-picture perspective, long-term
success can easily be fostered.

11. Focusing on Limited Measurements
What’s one of the quickest ways to create a short-sighted
campaign or marketing initiative? Set and solely focus on a single
goal. For example, in social media, the illustrious like button
often becomes a brand’s prey and social media campaigns
center specifically on garnering an increase in likes. And with
the prediction that 90 percent of social networkers will be on
Facebook by the end of the year, increasing a brand’s likes on
Facebook is not an unreasonable goal
to wish to attain. However, Facebook’s
EdgeRank algorithm leverages ongoing
interaction, serving up content more
frequently that is highly engaged with.
If a brand focuses on just getting
potential and past customers to like
it on Facebook, they’ll end up with a
short-term surge in awareness, as that
action creates content in the Ticker
and within the newsfeed, which is
visible to a user’s network. However, if
the campaign does not consider how
it can engage these new community
members after they liked the company,
the brand’s updates will undoubtedly
receive less interaction. Without
engaging users, efforts will result in less
impressions; thus, affecting how top-
of-mind the brand is within this core
audience.
In crafting a campaign or promotion that involves comprehensive
measurements – such as tracking impressions, interactions
and the spread of the campaign through sharing – a more
sound approach will likely be taken, resulting in better long-
term outcomes. Additionally, concentrating on a variety of brand
touchpoints by developing integrated campaigns will also aid in
creating heightened brand loyalty as consumers engage with
the brand more frequently and develop deeper connections.
Ignoring Opportunities
In focusing on limited goals, key opportunities could also be
10
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12. 11
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missed. For example, if a brand is only chasing Facebook
likes, they may not consider that email marketing is the perfect
complement to a Facebook fan. Generally, those who connect
with brands either likely already know of the company (84
percent of Facebook fans report being current customers) or
are interested in learning more. Companies that focused their
goals too narrowly in developing campaigns or marketing plans
would largely miss integrating these efforts.
For example, if running a social media campaign on Facebook,
a brand could strategically tie in email opt-ins on a custom
Facebook tab that provides an incentive for also connecting
with the brand. On the other side, email unsubscribe processes
could include a prompt to follow the brand on Facebook or
Twitter for shorter, more concise messages. By concentrating
on key metrics in both areas, companies can expand both their
short- and long-term results as consumers will be engaged both
initially and over time.
Being Stubborn
Ego is a hard thing to escape – and we’re all guilty of putting
our own ideas on a pedestal, but the close-mindedness of a
marketing team – both internally and externally – can be a
brand’s biggest downfall. A prime example of this is Timberland
boots. Now known for being a staple in hip-hop culture, the
company originally resisted addressing this audience for nearly
a decade, despite increasing interest and sales from this market.
Instead, leadership held on too strongly to the founder’s credo
of the boots only being for blue-collar workhands.
They resisted what they insisted was a culture ridden with
drugs and violence, and despite the brand ignoring them, early
adopting urban youth sought these goods for their form and
function. Timberland originally built its brand on the reliability
and durability of their product, as they were fixated on the
working class as a target audience. While valuing these same
facets of core functionality, the urban youth additionally focused
on a new dimension of the brand; its aesthetic appeal.
Timberland’s close-mindedness lead to the missed opportunity
of significantly increased long-term results, as they saw it
become a household name once they embraced their brand’s

13. 12
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budding new target market and started speaking to them
directly. In mitigating the chance of this, decision makers need
to ask themselves if they’re holding on too strong to a principle
or idea for the wrong reasons.
Blind to Brand Perception
In considering perceptions that might be elicited from campaigns
or marketing initiatives, brands could form small task forces of
those from their agency and internal pool of employees. Those
who haven’t worked on the project could review and come up
with any initial reactions to how the average consumer might
perceive the brand.
In doing this, the major reaction is that it’s going to open up a can
of worms and that no campaign or marketing tactic would ever
see the light of day. However, in having a solid brand strategy,
companies can use a strategic mission statement and brand
pillars, as well as their opposites, to ensure that perceptions
are first and foremost inline with what they should be to build
a strong brand. Following that, the task force or focus group’s
perceptions and contingencies can be weighted to determine if
the campaign is eliciting too negative of a reaction or if it really
only needs small tweaks, such as in a message being convoluted
or being in need of a stronger call-to-action.
With an aim of improving return on investment, the key
perception to concentrate on is the perception of quality.
Studies using the PIMS data base (measures more than one
hundred factors for over 3,000 companies) have demonstrated
that crafting a notion of excellence and value is the single most
important contributor to a company’s return on investment.
With a larger return, these companies with high perceptions of
quality are able to then have a higher impact on market share,
marketing expenditures and research and development. All
of these factors combined have a very clear and direct effect
on profitability as awareness is increased, the brand gains
market share and prices can be adjusted to reflect a premium
position in the marketplace. No matter the size of the company
or the industry it falls in, a brand’s perceived quality can often
be its biggest differentiator amongst the competition, but it is
particularly of importance for brands that are more likely to be
desired for emotional or intangible benefits.

14. 13
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Not Having A Concrete Brand
At the core of everything a company does is its brand. And, when we
say brand, we’re not talking about just a logo or an ad campaign used to
tell consumers what to think, we’re talking about the amalgamation of
all experiences marked in some shape, way or form by your company.
This could be everything from how a customer is treated by a customer
service representative to the packaging that wraps your goods, wares or
services. You’ll often see the greatest long-term failures with campaigns
and companies that fail to take this approach to brand, and instead
put the emphasis on using marketing and advertising to solely affect
these perceptions.
Even when the signs point to success – increased growth, efficient
operations and exceptional marketing results – a larger problem can
lurk beneath the surface. From the burgeoning start-up to the well-
established, long-standing business, a company or product can slowly
start to erode without a well-honed brand strategy. While companies
that don’t have this framework in place can still fare well, it’s often due
to their reliance on implementing short-term initiatives and campaigns
to achieve core objectives, such as stimulating growth. However, in
this, they’re never going to benefit from the residual results of taking a
cohesive and well thought out approach to building their brand.
In creating an unbreakable, unshakable and untakeable brand,
companies are able to solidify their position in the marketplace.
Top examples of businesses that have stood the test of time and
gained a significant competitive advantage through branding are
IBM, Apple, Target, PetSmart, Coca-Cola and Heineken. It also
serves as a checks-and-balances system when planning campaigns
and marketing initiatives, as you have an exceptionally distinct and
tangible framework to weigh creative, positioning, messaging and
potential perceptions against.
If your business is easily confused with competitors or is reliant
on short-lived campaigns, it may be time to consider developing a
comprehensive brand strategy where key considerations drive the
creation of that strongly held position in the market. Visions of red
numbers in parentheticals on balance sheets running through your
head? Well, sure, that band-aid approach of move-the-needle-ever-
so-slightly campaigns and initiatives won’t make that much of a dent
in expenditures, but the investment of brand planning is something
that will indefinitely provide a return, year-over-year.

15. 14
F Y I
As marketers and business professionals, we often avoid the F-word;
failure. While it’s touted as a science, marketing is more of an ongoing
experiment without always offering fail-proof laws and air-tight theories.
And, in that, failure is inevitable. But that’s okay, because with analysis
and post-mortem exploration, we gain expanded knowledge in
determining where the breakdown occurred. In doing this, brands are
able to continually grow and expand their efforts.
The key takeaway, just as in science, is to fully develop your hypothesis
through considering potential outcomes and key contingencies to
better craft your experiment to become much more than a short-
term success. Each new campaign is an opportunity to look back and
determine, what, if tweaked, could have yielded different results.
At Off Madison Ave, our mantra is to “Outthink. Outperform.” making
it an outward and well-known objective that we take these things
into consideration. In outthinking, companies need to not only be
integrated in the sense that they are functioning in tandem, but in
how they analyze these strategically thought out goals and objectives.
In doing this, brands can avoid inevitable failures, as they will have a
centralized view of what all the seemingly perplexing and extensive
data available to them means. Having this universal vision ensures
that those involved are able to recognize the opportunities they would
otherwise miss.
Having a centralized view in analyzing results and taking those key
learnings into account when executing future campaigns ensures
brands are continually garnering increased results, as the act of
outthinking lends itself to outperforming. As discussed at length,
through analysis of data and internal planning, a well-honed brand
strategy and thoughtful brand positioning will also aid companies in
outperforming the competition.
Looking to outthink and outperform? You could internally work through
the complex process of analyzing your brand’s positioning, potential
outcomes and business goals to build a framework that will truly lend
to long-term gain, or you could work with the people who have been
fine-tuning this very approach for years.
Those people?
Well, they can be found at www.offmadisonave.com.
LESSONS
LEARNED
The F-word doesn’t have to
be a bad thing, but only if
we learn from it.