This document lists various ways that brands can be killed or damaged, such as by over-branding, losing focus, diluting the brand, becoming undifferentiated from competitors, forgetting customer values, abandoning core values, providing poor customer service, failing to adapt to new technologies or market trends, and making decisions based on ego or complacency rather than market realities. Overall, the key messages are that brands must stay focused on their core identity and customer value proposition, listen to customers, and adapt to remain relevant in a changing marketplace.

1. How
to
kill
a
brand
(besides
having
a
lousy
product)

2. Over-­‐brand

4. ny;mes.com

5. brandchannel.com

6. brandchannel.com

7. Lose
focus

8. adage.com

9. adage.com

10. Dilu;on
Extend
too
much

12. brandfailures.blogspot.com

13. Un-­‐differen;a;on

14. fortune.com

16. Believe
your
customers
too
much
(or
lose
confidence
in
your
own
product)

18. Forget
why
your
customers
love
you

19. techcrunch.com

20. mashable.com

21. allthingsd.com

22. fastcompany.com

23. Before
NeIlix
there
was…

24. fortune.com

25. businessweek.com

26. Abandon
your
values
Forget
what
your
brand
represents

27. businessweek.com

28. fortune.com

29. It
wasn’t
always
like
this,
of
course

30. ny;mes.com

31. Can
J&J
bounce
back?
Toyota
did

32. brandchannel.com

33. dailymail.co.uk

34. cbsnews.com

35. brandchannel.com

36. fortune.com

37. merriamassociates.com

38. Is
Google
on
the
same
path?

39. gizmodo.com

40. gizmodo.com

41. Bad
service

42. buzzmachine.com

43. theinquirer.net

44. Dell
improved
–
but
will
the
brand
survive
in
a
post-­‐PC
world?

45. businessweek.com

46. And
then
there’s
this
of
course…

47. youtube.com

48. And
United
simply
didn’t
give
a
s***

49. youtube.com

50. Failure
in
crisis

51. engadget.com

53. There
are
worse,
of
course…

56. Lie

58. walmartwatch.com

59. There’s
worse…

60. nyy;mes.com

61. Greed

62. rollingstone.com

63. brandchannel.com,
boingboing.com

64. Wrong
role
models

65. independent.co.uk

66. brandchannel.com

67. There’s
MUCH
worse…
(Although
not
the
brand’s
fault)

68. telegraph.co.uk

69. Be
evil

70. brandchannel.com

71. Disrup;on
Ignore
new
technologies

72. magnetelblog.com

73. businessinsider.com

74. brandchannel.com

75. Irrelevance

77. Ignore
market
trends

78. bloomberg.com

79. businessinsider.com

80. telegraph.co.uk

81. Ego

82. mashable.com

83. Complacency/Megalomania

85. fool.co.uk

86. Or
maybe
it’s
just
idiocy?

87. ny;mes.com

88. Do
everything
wrong

89. bits.blogs.ny;mes.com

90. guardian.co.uk

91. businessweek.com

92. businessweek.com

93. businessinsider.com

94. ny;mes.com

95. Good
luck