There is always a way to save 35 million dollars. You just have to look for it, and not when it’s too late

Today I bumped into this brand “accident” that happened a few months ago – “Tropicana Orange Juice Waste $35 Million on their New Marketing/Packaging Failure”.

This story reminds me of a message of this old video “The truth in advertising”. If you haven’t watched it as a marketing or media professional you should (unless you too darn politically correct):

Yes, spending $35 mln on packaging and then its advertising, could be good for your agency. But is such initiative good for you as a Brand Manager, Product Marketing Director, or VP of Investor Relations? (I bet IR people would be on fire if the incident like that happened, but who would even consider asking shareholders about such ingenious move?). Who wins here on a client’s side?

Isn’t testing your new packaging (or a new product prototype, or new ad creatives) and listening to your customers after spending $35 million, a bit too late?  Why not engage them before, why not hear their advices, ideas and opinions while considering any marketing initiative all together? And if you are about to launch a new product, why not engage your customers, resellers, investors and vendors earlier – on product definition stage, industrial design stage, brand identity and creatives design, product launch planning?

There are no tools, are there not? Well, definitely there are? Did you even consider looking? We have been offering an opportunity to utilize social media and collaborative platforms for last 4 years. We now have launched a new enterprise software solution for people like you. And no, not stupid like you (we all know you have your MBAs and PhDs), but like you, too trusting to your super star ad agency.

Please watch for our announcement next week: PRESS RELEASE: IdeaMama Group Launches IR Web 3.0 — Investor Relations Software Suite with an Innovation-Fostering Collaborative Platform.

I have been on both – clients and agency side, and I can assure you. Yes, you can choose to spend $100 mln of your budget on something you could have done for $10 million, or may be you should have never done at all. I choose second, disregarding on whose side I am.

And yes, may be mentioned agency after all claimed that it was a strategically planed trick to gain publicity, but would that matter? One out of 100 cases of such failure might be, in the rest 99 it’s simply misconduct.

The brain was given to us for thinking (I verified that for myself ), not as an accessory. So, let’s use it.

Oh, boy, I was mean in this post, was I? What a pleasure! 
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by Olga Kostrova, CEO of IdeaMama Group | IdeaMama Ad Network | IdeaMamaClub.com |

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