From pig’s ear to perfection

Failure is a word that rarely trips off a marketer’s tongue. Few want to dwell on their mistakes or oversights, preferring instead to trumpet their successes.But some brave marketers are prepared to admit that everyone makes mistakes, themselves included. The trick is to turn those negative experiences into something positive, in other words, to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Success also has much to teach us. Memories tend to fade quickly and it is all too easy to get carried away with the euphoria of the moment and forget to extract valuable pearls of wisdom before moving on to the next challenge.

As a seasoned marketer, Britvic Soft Drinks category director Andrew Marsden admits that being a marketer is a continuing education process. “There’s been a lot of corporate money invested in my education,” he jokes.

On a serious note, he says, it is important for marketers to learn the language of business: “We are, after all, here to make money for shareholders. Marketing is institutional entrepreneurship, we need to maintain creativity and independence of intellectual thought – it’s a mixture of the academic and extremely pragmatic.”

Snacking in style

Marsden claims that his biggest mistake was commissioning an advertisement for a Batchelors snack pot product in his early marketing career for the sum of £80,000 – almost double the average cost of production at the time.

“It was the most expensive piece of advertising, using every technique known to man – you name it, it had it: animation, live action and voxpops,” says Marsden. “But it was a small piece of entertainment that failed to say anything much about the product.” The experience taught him that the consumer has to be “at the beginning, middle and end” of what marketers do.

For many marketers new product development is a particularly hazardous activity. Britvic has had its problems this year with the launch of Freekee Soda. Britvic initially called the new drink Freekin’ Soda until it realised that “freekin” is often a substitute for swearing.The company finally launched the soft drink under the name Freekee Soda, but it was forced to change it to Tango Strange Soda following a legal challenge from a Spanish company.

The company hopes that the association with the established Tango brand will help boost sales and win over retailers, who were considering delisting the product after it had been criticised by industry insiders for its “acquired taste” and “confusing proposition”.

For those working in new product development, Marsden offers a piece of advice: “Develop a mentality where you think just beyond the consumers’ current needs.”

Some of his greatest successes, he claims, came from doing just that – Robinsons Fruit Shoot was developed for the children’s lunch box market and J2O was a fruit juice drink made available in pubs and clubs that has become part of the normal drinks round.

Speaking at the Marketing Society conference this year, Brent Hoberman, chief executive and one of the founders of Lastminute.com, put it another way: “The big test of an idea is in one sentence – if consumers want to use it, then it will be successful.” He says that is exactly what his company succeeded in providing – the means to book ways to spend your leisure at the last minute. No doubt his success also came about following a change in attitude to work. Hoberman admits to having been fired for acting like a “prima donna” while working as a consultant with Mars.

Crowning glory

Serving a specific need also gave KMI chief executive and founder Will King his greatest success – the King of Shaves oil-based shaving range.

King says: “There was no market for these products before we came along – it was only shaving gels and creams. Now, it has become a mass-market alternative and a big industry. We’ve learned that if you find a product that serves a specific, unfilled and genuine need, you can convert it into a success.”

But not all ventures into new product development have been as successful for KMI. Its launch of the 24/7 deodorant and body spray range as a rival to Lever Fabergé’s Lynx and its Problem Solved line of shampoos and skincare products both failed to be a hit with consumers.

King says: “It taught me that when you step outside your core area, you can get heavily beaten. I showed a certain amount of arrogance and paid for it.”

Watch your figures

When moving into a new category it pays to do your homework first, as Peter Manzi, marketing manager at Imperial Tobacco, found out to his cost when he launched Golden Virginia Dark Blend in 1996, taking on Gallaher’s Old Holborn which was then suffering from falling sales. “Unfortunately, it turned out the brand was relatively strong and it was the sector itself that was declining which meant our launch failed,” he says. “I learned that just because a brand looks weak, there could be external factors that need to be considered.”

Manzi made sure that building brand values was at the top of his agenda when he launched Richmond cigarettes in 1999, his most satisfying achievement in his career.

“It was my own personal project,” he says. “I even created the packaging based around a colour scheme I spotted on some food packs at the printers. After four years, it is now a £1.3bn brand with a 12.5 per cent share of the market, taking more sales than Coca-Cola. The lesson I learned was never underestimate the power of a brand – people said there was no need to build up brand values in the ultra low-price market, but we proved that a strong brand is important regardless.”

However, when it comes to new product launches you can concentrate too much on the paperwork and be led by statistics and legislative and social trends rather than instinct and common sense.

Charles Garland, 19 Management marketing director and one of the brains behind Pop Idol, was previously group development director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty. There he worked on Whitbread’s low-alcohol beer White Label, which was launched in response to Allied Breweries’ Swan Light.

“In the late Eighties drink-driving laws started to tighten up and companies like Whitbread were worried about declining beer sales,” says Garland, speaking at last year’s Marketing Society conference. “We all know that when alcohol is taken out of beer, it tastes foul. But, nobody wanted to believe that fundamental truth. Whitbread spent a lot of money and time behind the launch and we at BBH were also trying to convince consumers that White Label tasted right. But the product failed completely.”

He adds: “It’s too easy to be information-led and, because of that, bypass fundamental truths.”

However, his greatest success was reinventing the time-honoured talent show format with 19 Management founder Simon Fuller in the form of Pop Idol. Persistence – it took three years to persuade ITV bosses to take the show – and creative thinking finally paid off.

Techno babble

New technology can also distract marketers from their core sector, as United Biscuits UK marketing director Jon Eggleton found out while at Diageo. The company adapted new widget technology, created to enable a can of Guinness to be poured with a creamy head, for a new premium lager called Enigma. But the product was ditched after just 18 months and much expenditure. “Don’t be seduced into technology-led new product development,” warns Eggleton. “It is a huge diversion of resources and you have to be sure that you are offering consumers a genuine difference, which is hard when you are operating in a mature market.”

He claims that his greatest success was with the Guinness brand, deciding after much debate to play on its Irish roots and make the most of the Irish pub phenomenon, which led to the development of such initiatives as the Perfect Pint two-step pouring method.

Waitrose sales and marketing director Mark Price has also had his fingers burned by new technology. The supermarket introduced a WAP mobile phone ordering service for flowers and wine, launched through one of Bob Geldoff’s new media companies. “It just bombed,” says Price. “The lesson from that was not to be always at the cutting edge of development. Sometimes it is better to sit back and wait. The other thing I learned is never to believe the projections of analysts and so-called experts. On reflection it is better to test a concept with your own customers, relying on your own experience and market research.”

But Price’s greatest success has had support from more than just Waitrose customers – the Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine. Despite being rebranded with the supermarket’s name after it was acquired from John Brown Publishing, the title has conquered the high end of the food magazine market with its independent editorial focus on good food no matter where it comes from.

The publishing industry has thrown up lessons for other marketers. Guardian Newspapers marketing director Marc Sands and Channel 4 marketing director Polly Cochrane have both learned to use limited marketing budgets to maximum effect and not to rely on advertising.

As head of communications at Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair magazine, Cochrane had no advertising budget and quickly learned to secure editorial space “that money can’t buy”. She worked at getting stories or pictures from the magazine placed in the national press. “Now I always try to make sure we create advertising that is used in such a way that it will create publicity or work well with publicity, or use publicity instead of advertising where we can.”

She’s had her fair share of hiccups, though. While product manager on the Observer, Cochrane let through an ad created and cleared by Leagas Delaney, which ran in The Guardian, that incorrectly spelled the name Saddam Hussein. She says: “The experience turned me into an ace proof reader.”

No ON button

For Sands, who was involved in the launch of the fundamentally flawed ONdigital, failure is sometimes something that you can do little about, even with the backing of huge marketing budgets. “However much money you have and however well you market the product, if it doesn’t work, forget it. It was a big leap from the idea to the execution, and the product did not work.”

But sometimes failure comes from where you least expect it. Müller UK general manager designate Andrew Harrison admitted at the Marketing Society’s conference earlier this year, when he was still Nestlé Rowntree marketing director, that, like many publishers, he failed to spot the potential of Harry Potter. For three consecutive years – 1997 to 1999 – an unknown author JK Rowling was voted the most popular writer by school children in the Smarties Book Prize. But when Harrison joined Nestlé he missed the opportunity of aligning his Smarties brand with one of the world’s most successful book properties to date.

He consoles himself with the fact that the relaunch of Yorkie Bar, backed by the humorous “It’s not for girls” advertising, and the revamp of Kit Kat, with its modern packaging, are two of his career highlights.

So it seems that failure does not have to be all bad news, and in many cases knowledge gleaned from past mistakes can lay the foundation for future successes. For marketers it is worth remembering that knowledge-building never stops – whether it’s through failure or success.

Reporting by Branwell Johnson, Caroline Parry, Sonoo Singh, Daniel Thomas and Amanda Wilkinson

Graduates of the school of blunders

Andrew Marsden

Category director, Britvic Soft Drinks

Career: Several marketing positions including marketing director and joint managing director of Vileda, marketing director of HP Foods and marketing director of Britvic.

Failure: Overspending on an all-singing, all- dancing ad for a Batchelors snack pot product that failed to convey the key points about the product and was confusing for the consumer.

Success: Robinsons Fruit Shoot and J2O.

Will King

Chief executive, KMI

Career: Worked in magazine advertising sales before founding KMI

Failure: Stepping outside core market of shaving oils to launch a deodorant and bodyspray range and a line of shampoos and skincare products.

Success: King of Shaves oil-based shaving range.

Peter Manzi

Marketing manager, Imperial Tobacco

Career: Has worked for Imperial Tobacco for 37 years, starting out as a management trainee and rising to become chief marketer.

Failure: Launch of Golden Virginia Dark in a bid to take on Gallaher’s Old Holborn, a strong brand in the struggling dark rolling tobacco market.

Success: Creating a strong brand – Richmond – in the ultra low-price cigarette market where brand values had traditionally been absent.Brent Hoberman

Chief executive, Lastminute.com

Career: Various consultancy roles before founding Lastminute.com.

Failure: Being fired from his position as a consultant for Mars after acting like “a prima donna”.

Success: Launch of Lastminute.com.

Jon Eggleton

Marketing director, United Biscuits UK

Career: Worked at Diageo as regional director of marketing for Guinness Asia Pacific and as marketing controller in Guinness GB before joining cider manufacturer Bulmers as marketing director and ending up at United Biscuits.

Failure: Being seduced by new “widget” technology.

Success: Using Guinness’s Irish roots to market the drink.

Charles Garland

Co-founder, 19 Management

Career: Group development director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty before founding 19 Management and helping launch S Club 7 and developing the Pop Idol concept.

Failure: Unsuccessful in convincing the public of the benefits of low-alcohol lager.

Success: Pop Idol.

Mark Price

Sales and marketing director, Waitrose

Career: Has worked at Waitrose since 1989, starting as store merchandise manager and rising to his current position.

Failure: Taken in by new technology and launching a WAP service for Waitrose flowers and wine.

Success: Acquisition of Food Illustrated and rebranding it under the Waitrose name while giving the editorial team freedom to write about “good food no matter where it comes from”.

Polly Cochrane

Marketing director, Channel 4

Career: Stints at publishers Condé Nast and Guardian Newspapers before joining Channel 5 as part of the channel’s launch team and then Channel 4, where she rose to become chief marketer.

Failure: Letting through advertising copy that mis-spelled the name Saddam Hussein, while product manager on the Observer.

Success: Using limited budget to maximum effect.

Andrew Harrison

General manager designate, Müller UK

Career: Haircare marketer at Procter & Gamble before becoming marketing director at Coca-Cola UK and then moving to Nestlé Rowntree as marketing director. He is due to start at Müller in April.

Failure: Failing to recognise the potential of Harry Potter.

Success: Relaunch of Yorkie bar and revamp of Kit Kat.

Marc Sands

Marketing director, Guardian Newspapers

Career: Began as an account planner for Still Price Lintas and then HHCL & Partners before becoming marketing director for Granada UK Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Granada Media Group. Moved to ONdigital and became director of brand marketing. Joined Guardian Newspapers in May 2000.

Failure: ONdigital.

Success: Learning to look beyond advertising to market a product.