Why some brands become uncool

Sarah Michael
May 18, 2013
news.com.au

AS consumers we often can’t pinpoint it ourselves. It’s more of a feeling.

One day a product is cool and you have to have it, the next day it is boring and you can’t even explain why.

One man who can explain is Michael McQueen, author of a new book about why and how major companies become obsolete.

In Winning the Battle for Revelance Mr McQueen outlines three key reasons that brands become uncool.

The first is that stuff changes. New technology comes in, or demographics shift, and what was once must-have is suddenly old news.

Mr McQueen points to the example of Blackberry, which had 42 per cent market share in January 2010. It now has 5.2 per cent market share.

“People called them ‘crackberries’, they were always using them, they were the must-have item for the busy important person,” he said.

Then the iPhone came along.

Levi’s also became uncool, not because of new technology, but because the people wearing them got old.

“In the 70s and 80s they were the counter-cultural, edgy brand and then suddenly they were mum or dad’s Levi’s,” Mr McQueen.

The second reason brands become uncool is that they become intoxicated with their own success.

“So many brands are at the top of their game and then get arrogant and start taking their consumers for granted and people get jack of it and start abandoning them,” he said.

Mr McQueen said Sony was a perfect example. The company enjoyed extraordinary success after creating the Walkman and the Discman.

“But because they dominated the marketplace when they introduced their MiniDisc player Sony kept trying to force customers to use their product,” he said.
Minidisk was so unpopular the product range was discontinued.

Mr McQueen said Apple and Facebook were in danger of becoming too comfortable with their success.

“When Apple pushed that upgrade through and they made people put Apple Maps on their iPhone they got a kickback,” he said.

“People didn’t want to be forced to do it.”

The third reason brands become uncool, according to Mr McQueen, is that they become addicted to progress and grow too quickly.

Billabong fell victim to this when it branched out of surf wear and started making mainstream clothing.

“As soon as they started neglecting their core market of surfers the idea was that they were selling out,” he said.

“Angus Kingsmill, head of Mambo, said this happened to them and he learned that a brand has to choose if you’re going to be cool or you’re going to be mainstream.

“You can’t be both.”

Mr McQueen said most company leaders only pay attention to easily quantifiable things like sales figures and profits, but ignore their product’s relevance.
“Kodak were still the darlings of Wall St well after they’d begun to lose the digital war,” Mr McQueen said.

So what can a company do if they find that their relevance is slipping?

“Brands need to reconnect with consumers and not fall back on assumptions about what consumers want but actually go ask them,” he said.
Then companies must reposition their brand.

“Look at how Polaroid compared to Kodak, Polaroid repositioned themselves as retro and hipster and now they’re as relevant as ever.”
In other words, pay attention to your customers, or leave your brand at the mercy of hipsters.