Brands In Crisis
By Tom Barnes
8/20/00

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I read the news today. Oh boy:

The New York Times ran a cover story a couple of Sundays ago in the magazine about the death of the national brand. Cause of death: Tivo and boxes like it give viewers the ability to skip the commercials. Their argument: No national media advertising-no national brands.

The latest cover of Business 2.0 whines about One to One's failure to deliver on the promise of automated personalized customer service.

Gartner issued results from a report they've published last week saying customer service, particularly on line-- is abysmal. Amazon.com has almost 1000 Customer Service Reps (CSR's). Do you think you can buy a book from any of them? Nope. Further, out of 50 top online companies surveyed, only 28 percent acknowledged email inquiries received, 24 percent offered instant messaging services, and a mere 10 percent were able to effectively assist customers from origin of an inquiry or problem to resolution.

Brands are in trouble. Let's look at three kings in the branding world: Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, and Kelloggs. As of this writing (8/20/2000) All are trading within 20% of their 52-week low. All have a P/E ratio of around 25. Bottom feeders and value players might yell, "buy". I'd wait.

Big media is more expensive and less effective than it's ever been. Unit loads are at an all time high, yet metrics from Arbitron and Nielsen show radio listening and network TV viewing down. Is there any correlation? I don't know. I know that a cluttered environment is more confusing to the consumer. It's harder than ever to stand out from the noise particularly when boxes like Tivo are letting people skip the noise all together. Additionally, the networks are becoming more reliant on event television. That puts even more risk on time buys. In retrospect was advertising on Fox's "Who Wants To Marry a Multi-Millionaire" good for the brand?

How do you communicate a benefit or position in such a noisy, expensive environment? More importantly, how do you make an impression? How do you create a brand if all the old ways aren't working so well anymore?

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