Can Failure Create Winning Brands?

Creating a winning brand most often starts with many failures.  Who likes to fail? No one! However without failures there would be no successes.  Tim Harford, in his books “Why success always starts with failure” encourages us to expect failure.  If you are too afraid to fail you are more likely to fail, simply because you fail to try new things.

 

“Why success always starts with failure” Tim Harford

As a business we have had to reinvent our strategy over and over and over again. This is not easy to do in such a fast pace environment.  However, you cannot rest, even when you are on top, you have to keep working. It’s like working tirelessly to get on the first page of Google search engine and once finally there you have to keep working to remain there. You have to keep optimizing your webpage by adding new contents that is relevant among other things to remain on top in the Google search engine. Similarly, you need to keep tweaking your brand to be effective.  A brand exists for one key purpose: to be the bridge that connects a product’s or service’s promise with the consumer’s desire.  Brands should help you to get noticed and preferable chosen above the competitor. How easy it that in a constantly changing environment? The Internet exposes us to millions of ideas, options and brands.  However, so many choices are overwhelming.  Consider the proliferation of different brands clamoring for consumer attention. Today you can buy over 10 billion products. There are over 100,000 distinct products for sale in a Wal-Mart. Starbucks claim to sell 87,000 different beverages. So how do you get your brand to stand out?  Yes you have to be different.  It’s simply not enough to be like the rest. ? Here are some fundamental questions that you will need to ask yourself and to answer:

• What problem is your product or service solving that has not already been solved? 
• Why should I choose your product or service over someone else’s?  Is it the price, quality?
•  Do you have a unique selling proposition?  

Once you have found the answers to the questions above you have to communicate that message to your intended audience. Keep adapting to meet the needs of your market. It may take many trials and failure to find the right answers to these questions.  That is where market research comes in. You have to know your market.  BestBuy is a successful company in the US but it failed in China because it tried to introduce “large stores” concept it used in the American Market.  1) Test new ideas (Be warned, not all will be winners) 2) Test them on a small scale- where failure is survivable 3) Seek feedback and adapt accordingly