Big brands big trouble

✍ Scribed by Daniel R. Sersland

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 34 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-6046
• DOI: 10.1002/mar.20059

✦ Synopsis

This book, Big Brands Big Trouble, is Jack Trout's exposé of the plight of companies that have used their brand name recognition to their discredit. The essence of the book is to illustrate that big corporations get into trouble financially when they attempt to expand into markets where they have not specialized in the past. The companies examined include AT&T, McDonald's, Coke, Xerox, Burger King, Firestone, GM, Levi Strauss, and Miller Brewing, among others. Trout sheds light on core competencies of these name brands, and then explains how such competency was reduced to incompetence in brand management.

Trout contends that perception is reality when it comes to examination of corporate images and positioning in the mind of the consumer. The author emphasizes that perception is everything and that there is danger in deviating from what consumers believe is the strength of a business. In other words, if AT&T is known for the telephone business, then their corporate strategy should be about telephones as opposed to other product lines. If Xerox is known for copiers, then they should stick to that product line. Sometimes a brand may already be positioned as a strong brand in the minds of consumers but nevertheless may need a new brand name. Trout illustrates this with the Firestone tire blowouts on SUVs and trucks that led to the negative image of a strong brand. He further illustrates the problem of having too many brand names with Miller beer. If Miller had focused on High Life and Lite rather than creating numerous brand names, the erosion of their market share relative to Anheuser-Bush would not have been as drastic.

Trout exemplifies market segmentation strategy by examining GM's divisional structure. Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac are presented as one of the earliest forms of segmentation in modern business. The author goes on to demonstrate that GM failed in the preservation of the segmentation strategy when the pricing and styling of the